The Little Street Girl
by MyLadyOfStories
Summary: Jace is a street girl, and has been for 2 years. She ran from her foster parents when she was 12, and never looked back. Jace was doing well, living anonymously as a boy until the spaceship crashed into Big Ben. And then everything changed when the Doctor found her. He gave her a home.
1. Jace

**The Doctor:**

There was a massive space ship crash into Big Ben, and I had no clue what was going on. We couldn't get through the city towards it, not that I was expecting to be able to, but I would have liked a little bit of a closer look. "It's blocked off."

"We're miles from the centre." Rose sighed, looking at all the people around us, the cars at a stand still as the people legged it. Humans. "The city must be grid locked. The whole of London must be closing down."

"I know. I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!" I grinned at her, then paused, seeing someone not running anywhere, just hidden a little down an alley way, hunched into a ball. They looked up after I saw them, and I saw a flash of blue eyes before they were running, a hat crammed onto her head, hiding what must have been a lot of hair. She could easily pass as a boy the way she was.

I wanted to run after her, and find out who she was and why she was hiding, but Rose brought me back on track. The spaceship ."Did you know this was going to happen?"

"Nope."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you recognise the ship?"

"Nope."

Rose sighed a little. "Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you."

I just grinned even more, still looking for where the girl was going, but she knew this city better than I did. She lived on the streets. "I bet you are. This is what I travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of us."

"Well, let's go and see it." She smiled back, and I found myself caught on her face again. "Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

That wasn't really a good idea. "Better not. They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top."

"Yeah, but yours looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice."

Apart from my fanclub, and UNIT, and anything else that had cropped up over the years. There were a few detectives looking for it, wondering about it. I was avoiding them as long as possible. "You'd be surprised. Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me. The TARDIS stays where it is."

Rose sighed even more, and I looked at her again. She was so gorgeous. "So history's happening and we're stuck here."

"Yes, we are."

"We could always do what everybody else does." That sounded good, what did everyone else do? "We could watch it on TV." Ah, great.

 **DW**

Back at her flat, her mum still being incredibly rude towards me, I tried to listen to the TV, the news telling me that they'd been investigating it. Not that I could hear it because Jackie was talking incredibly loud, still going on about the year she'd been with me. I didn't mean to make her a year late!

And then something else happened.

They found a body in the wreck, something non-terrestrial, well, obviously, how long did that take you to work out, the fact that it was in a massive space ship, or the fact that it didn't look exactly the same as the rest of you? Rose's welcome home gathering was turning into a party, with wine, which knowing Jackie wouldn't end well, and it was getting steadily louder.

The body was being taken to a special unit mortuary, but they didn't know where. And then a toddler grabbed the remote, turning over to Blue Peter, something strange to be on TV at this time of night, but hey ho, maybe it was like Hollyoaks later or something. God, please, please tell me I did not like that programme in this regeneration, that would just be too embarrassing.

I managed to get it back of the kid, and turned it back to News 24, just in time to be told it was at Albion Hospital, and that they didn't know if it was alive or dead. Whitehall was denying everything as usual.

The hospital was closest to the river, and all the surrounding roads had been closed off. They'd moved patients out onto the streets, but still denying the confirmation of the alien body inside. How stupid was that?

Then they went on to say how the Prime Minister had disappeared, how people were criticising his lack of leadership, but then more people started coming out of cars and going into the house, apparently he was in charge of exported confectionery. Well, with the size of him... I could see that.

I got to my feet and tried to sneak off then, making it outside the flat before Rose caught me, and grabbed my shoulder. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Nowhere." I really couldn't lie very well in this form. "It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

She laughed a little, shaking my head. "Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just wandering."

"Nothing to do with me." I shrugged. "It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect."

She didn't get the point. "So?"

"So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand." I paused, hearing David Bowie singing Starman in the background. Humans. "You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

Rose considered it. "Promise you won't disappear?"

"Tell you what." I fished in my pockets for a moment, and pulled out something. "TARDIS key. It's about time you had one. See you later."

I waved bye to her, and headed down to the TARDIS, but then paused, walking down a small side alley on a hunch. It was even grottier than the one from earlier, and I followed it to a dead end, and sighed. So much for the hunch.

But then something fell over behind me, and I turned just in time to see the girl running back down the alley. I followed her out, and saw her trying to hide behind the TARDIS. She didn't see me coming over, looking the wrong direction, so I went and sat next to her. "What you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

The girl jumped, her hat coming off and long ratted and tangled curled fell out, telling me she'd been out on the streets for a long time. That and the fact she was in tatty clothes that weren't exactly clean. "Hey, hey, I'm not here to hurt you, or call the social. I'm the Doctor, what's your name?"

At the mention of Doctor, she tried to scramble away from me and run, but I grabbed her arm and she hissed in pain, clutching at it. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was hurt. Let me look, please." She relented, and I carefully helped her pull off the thick, but tattered coat she had on, looking at the scars and bruises on her arms, as well as the fact that her wrist was broken, and a lot more bones had been set wrong. "oh god... What happened to you?"

"T, they told me it was my fault. That I deserved it." She spoke so quietly I could barely hear her. She was an abuse victim. "M, my name's Jace."

I smiled a little bravely, knowing now why she was scared of Doctors. They warped her idea of them in her head. "Nice to meet you, Jace. I have some clothes and things if you want them. You can wash your hair, put on make up all that stuff a girl your age should be doing. How old are you?"

She lifted her head a little, making herself seem bigger. "16."

"No. Look at you, Jace, you don't need to lie to me. I can see right off you can't be older than 15 and that's being kind. Really, how old are you?"

Jace sighed a little, curling up smaller. This poor girl. "I, I'm 14."

14 and out on the streets. She'd been out for at least 2 years, and it had really taken its toll on her, what must have been long ash brown hair had turned darker, more black from the smog and everything she'd come into contact with. "Come on, Jace, I've got some clothes for you, as well as medical treatment and a hot shower."

She was too quiet and shy to say no, so I helped her to her feet and lead her into the TARDIS, hearing Mickey call after me, but I just led her inside, too tired to realise that it was so big until we'd dematerialised. "Jace, love, are you alright?"

"h, how b, big i, is this place?" She asked me, looking around in wonder and fear, making herself seem smaller by hugging her arms around herself. "I, it feels so big..."

I went over to her as we landed where we needed to be, only about 10 minutes early. "Jace, it's fine. It's bigger on the inside, but it's real, and so am I. You're not on the streets." She nodded a little and I carefully walked her through the TARDIS, first stopping to let her shower, where she came out with the colour hair I was expecting, ash brown, and her skin unmarked from any spots as she was bundled in a large white dressing gown. Next, I took her to the med room, where I carefully strapped up her wrist in a cast that would heal it in under a week.

She was just watching me silently through all of this, her blue eyes scared that at any moment I would start shouting, or hurt her further. "Why are you helping me?" She asked after a while. "No one ever see's me, let alone helps me..."

Oh this poor, poor girl. How long had she believed that people were out here to hurt her, to scare her into being perfect yet even then hurting her. "Because you deserve it. 14 years old and running from the abuse you must have gone through. Look, I'll give you a roof over your head, food, clothes and security, all you have to do is promise not to run. Promise not to be scared of me."

"W, w, why? D, don't you have a family of you own?" Jace asked me, and I sighed, thinking of my daughter and son back on Gallifrey. Caleb and Alyce. She looked like her a little. The same eyes. But she was gone now.

"No, I don't. But you don't have a family either, Jace. If you don't run, I can put myself into the Social records as your legal guardian, and whoever is after you, the people you were living with, they won't be able to get to you." She looked hopeful at that, and it told me she was considering it. "I promise, Jace."

After a moment, she nodded a little. "Y, yes. P, please. I, I, I can't go, go back to that..." Her face crumpled a little and she started crying, and I hugged her close, kissing her head as she sobbed, knowing that she must have been strong for so long. "T, t, thank you..."

"It's OK, Jace, I promise. Now, go get dressed, we're going to investigate some alien, alright?" Jace frowned a little, her eyes looking so young while full of tears. "It's what I do. I'm an alien, and I either help other aliens when they get stuck, or I stop them from hurting other people. That big ship, I need to make sure they're not going to hurt us, and the humans aren't going to hurt them."

"O, ok..." She nodded a little, wiping her eyes. Rose would like her, she was like the little sister she never had and Jace seemed like she needed a big sister. Once she started eating, and her needs were filled, she'd start puberty properly. I had no clue how to raise a teenage girl on my own. "D, do y, you have some clothes?"

I nodded and pointed to the door on the far wall. "Wardrobe through there, wear whatever you want as long as it fits and keeps you warm. You're freezing, Jace."

She went in, and I left instructions on how to go back to the console room and went over there, looking up the name Jace in missing persons.

 **1 Result:**

 _Jaclyn Allison Monroe, North London, went missing from Foster care on the 23rd November 2003._

 _Single survivor of a car crash in 1998 that killed both her parents and younger sister Katie, leaving her orphaned at the age of 7. She was adopted by Jim and Sarah Campbell at the age of 9, and they reported her missing at the age of 12 when they found her missing._

 _No signs of Jaclyn have been found since now and it is though that she was taken and either murdered or moved across seas. Her adopted parents are still holding out hope that Jaclyn will be found safe and well, though the police are less than optimistic about this._

There was a picture of her there, and she looked completely different, big smiles and chubbier cheeks. An article about the crash was attached, and it said that they were thrown off a bridge by something, no foul play suspected. And there was one other thing on there. Her school record.

She was a genius, mostly in arts and music, being a grade 5 piano player by 9, and was just amazing at art and singing. And then she suddenly stopped performing or even turning up at school about a year into being adopted. She went off the map, her parents saying she'd been home schooled.

I turned the monitor off as she came into the console room, the piece of paper held tight in her hands. She looked a lot healthier now, in a pair of jeans, and a blue long sleeved top with a thick woollen cardigan over it all, as well as a pair of hard wearing work boots. "Better?" I asked her, seeing that her long hair was clean and brushed, spiralling down around her face as she hid behind it.

"Yes, thank you. S, so this is a space ship?"

"Yes, it is. It's called the TARDIS, that's Time and Relative Dimensions In Space. It can travel anywhere in time and space, but right now, we're in Albion Hospital, and we're going to meet an alien. You coming, Jacey?" I offered her my hand and she took it, letting me lead her out of the TARDIS silently as she stood close to me. She was trusting me fully, and for a girl who's been through all this, that's not a bad thing.

We'd landed in a store cupboard, and I lead her to the door, opening it with the sonic before telling her to be quiet and opening the door. And we walked into a room full of Red Berets - the Parachute Regiment. We stared at each other in silence for a moment, my new 14 year old friend staring at them in horror as the soldiers grabbed their weapons and pointed them at us.

And then someone screamed behind us, and I pulled Jace along with me, surprised at how easily the girl could keep up with me. "Defence plan delta! Come on. Move! Move!"

The girl who screamed was cowering by her desk a cut on her head that was steadily bleeding. "It's alive!" She told us, and Jace looked at me, looking scared again, but bending down to comfort the woman.

"Spread out. Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown." I told the marines, and the woman was still freaking a little. "Do it!" They all started running down the corridors, and I bent down with Jaclyn, who was stroking the woman's shoulder a little.

She shook her head. "I swear it was dead."

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything. What does it look like?"

Then there was metal clattering at the far end of the room and Jace turned towards it even faster than I did. "It's still here." She whispered, her big blue eyes open wide. I gestured for a soldier to come and kneel by the woman and helped Jace to her feet, holding her hand again.

Behind a filing cabinet, we caught sight of something, and it was a pig. "Hello." We said together, and I saw Jace smile a little for the first time as she saw it was wearing a spacesuit. It ran out at on its hind legs and I shouted at the soldiers to not shoot. But of course, they didn't listen as another one shot it, Jace flinching at each shot and glared at the man. "What did you do that for? It was scared! It was scared."

We went back to the morgue with it, and Dr Sato was a little more stable now, as we examined the pig, Jace sat waiting patiently, playing with the cast on her wrist. I wondered how long it had actually been broken, because that must have been painful.

But then we found out something rather worrying. It was a real pig. "I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth." Dr Sato repeated, and Jace raised her eyebrows, making a piggie face that made me smirk a little. She was alright now she wasn't so scared.

"More like a mermaid." Now it was a fish impression. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up it's brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

"So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien. Aliens are faking aliens. But why would they do that?" We were already walking back towards the TARDIS now, and she didn't notice. "Doctor? Jace?"

We dematerialised back into the Powell estate, and Rose came back in looking a little upset and nervous. "All right, so I lied. I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look, and this is Jace, she's my new friend, slash Ward."

"My mum's here." Rose said, and Jace looked at me, frowning in confusion as she hugged her arm around herself, the injured one and hiding it under the cardigan. Used to hiding weaknesses. "And you're that street girl, you were hiding in all the alley over the last year or so."

Wait, Jackie was here. Jackie Tyler, great. "Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic." Which I'd kind of done by taking in the 14 year old, but oh well.

"You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you." Rickey told me, and I sighed, shaking my head, putting my arm around her shoulder, knowing the shouting wasn't going to be helping her at all.

"You see what I mean? Domestic."

He folded his arms at me, getting annoyed. "I bet you don't even remember my name. Seems to me you only like pretty teenagers, what with this girl."

"Ricky." I could remember people's names, it was places I was rubbish with.

"It's Mickey."

How stupid could you be, forgetting his own name. "No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name."

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

And then Jackie walked back out, and Rose followed her, before coming back in. "That was a real spaceship. And you took some teenage runaway instead of me, are you serious?"

"Yep. And there is a bloody good reason she ran away, Rose, don't think she ran away from parent's who wouldn't give her a phone."

She looked a little shocked at my tone, protecting Jace, but quickly changed subject, while I started fixing something under the console. "So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade," Rickey pointed out. "Putting the world on red alert."

Actually, that was very well noticed. "Good point! So, what're they up to?"

"So, what're you doing down there?" I'd moved fully under it and he'd gotten very suspicious, while I could still see Jace sat on the jump seat, looking warily at Rose and Rickey.

"Ricky."

"Mickey."

How did he really not know his own name? "Ricky. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

He considered this. "I suppose not."

"Well, shut it, then. Jace, are you alright, love?"

"Y, yeah..." She said, nodding a little, still holding her wrist a little. "A, a little tired." Couldn't blame her to be honest. She was incredibly young and barely eating or drinking anything safe, and because of that her body's growth was really stunted. I hoped she'd be OK once she regulated..

And then I got what I needed, jumping back from under the console and looking at the monitor. "Got it! Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on." Rose and Jace came over to look, and I saw the little genius working it out.

"I, it did a sling shot around the Earth f, first. I, it went up and came back down." She said, and I nodded.

Rose frowned, not understanding. "What does that mean?"

"Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while." I told them, already feeling proud of how Jace was fitting in. "The question is, what have they been doing?"

I started doing something on the console, while Rickey and Rose started channel hopping, Jace awkwardly standing at the edge, before Rick glanced over at me. "How many channels do you get?"

"All the basic packages."

I so know where this was going. "You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football. Hold on, I know that lot." I moved it onto the news channel again, and looked at the soldiers walking through the drive of Downing Street. "UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

Jace and Rose both frowned a little. "How do you know them?"

"'Cos he's worked for them." I looked at Rickey in surprise. How the hell did he know that? "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead."

"That's nice. Good boy, Ricky." I smiled a little, seeing that Jace wasn't paying attention to anything. She was half asleep on her feet.

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?"

I shrugged a little. "They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days." Nearly half a dozen times. "Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

He considered it a little. "Where to?"

"The roads are clearing." I smiled a little, taking Jace's hand. "Let's go and have a look at that spaceship. And food, Chinese, none of those rubbish chips."

We walked out of the TARDIS, and straight into a helicopter spotlight, police running right forwards. "Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." Rickey and Jace pulled away, running, but only Rickey got out, Jace being manhandled kicking and screaming to get free.

Jackie came running out, screaming for her daughter to be let go, but she was just held back as the soldiers ran right past Rickey, hiding behind the bins. "Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest."

I saw Jace get put in the car with the soldiers, handcuffs being forcibly put on her, and her crying in pain as it crushed her wrist. "Take me to your leader, as long as you take those off her."

They didn't listen but pushed Rose and I into a police car, where it was all plush and clean. "This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago." Well, you did grow up on a council estate, but there was no need to follow the stigma around them. Break it instead.

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted. Though it's likely they'll call the social for Jace and I didn't get a chance to change her records." I sighed, seeing the car she was in behind us.

Rose pursed her lips a little. "She'll be fine. Where to?"

"Where'd you think? Downing Street."

Her eyes widened. "You're kidding."

"I'm not." Why would I kid about something like that?

She still didn't believe me. "10 Downing Street?"

"That's the one."

"Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing Street? How come? And why are they bothering with Jace, she's just a kid."

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed. And people with me are deemed important. You're lucky your man wasn't seen or he'd have been carted with us. But Jace is a missing persons, she's going to be put back with her foster parents, which won't be good."

Rose sighed a little. "Like my older cousin Charlotte, her dad hit her and they never found out. Not until she was hospitalised. I can see why she ran. But now they need you?"

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

She gave me a sly smile. "Patrick Moore?" Yes, the man who's never actually met another alien, clever.

"Apart from him."

"Oh, don't you just love it."

I shook my head, smiling at her teasing. "I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table." That reminded me actually. "Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know? I missed a year." And then we got out, and I gave a mug shot for the cameras, making Rose despair. "Oh, my God."

We got inside, and another man was talking to everyone, handing out ID cards. I saw Jace being held by a burly looking man in the corner and walked over. "Excuse me, I think you're holding my friend incredibly tight when she has a broken wrist."

"I've been told to keep her here until the meeting in convened." He replied, while Jace just silently cried, probably terrified about the prospect of being taken back. "Please return to where you're supposed to be."

This was not going well. "I'm not going anywhere. She's in my protection, and you're hurting her. She was fine with me, and she won't run, will you Jace?" She shook her head, and her hair fell over her face a little. "See? Now, I'm here as a guest, and she is with me. I want her back in my protection where she will not leave my side."

"Sir, I won't ask you again, please go back to where you are supposed to be. Jaclyn will be perfectly safe with me."

"Jace. My name is Jace." She growled, and then took a deep breath, using what little movement she had to grab the man's gun from the holster and holding it to his gut. "Uncuff me or I will shoot. I would rather go to juvie than back there."

Now, that was a good move. Not that I approved really, because it was a gun, but the man uncuffed her, and she turned, rubbing her wrist. "Thank you. I'll drop the gun when I'm far enough away, but you are not coming after me. I am not, going back into care." Then she backed away with me, dropping the gun just as we reached Rose again.

Rose smiled at her, and then gave her a small hug. "I'm sorry I was a bit of a cow."

"It's fine. I'm used to it. Besides, you gave me your coat not long before you disappeared." Smiling, she hid back behind me as we went over to the guy with all the ID cards.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." He handed one to me. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance, and your younger companion is being looked after very well and she'll be taken back to her parents after the emergency has convened."

So lets not say that she's hiding behind my back, shall we? "I don't go anywhere without her. And Jace isn't who you think she is. Her name is Jace Smith, and she's my daughter." Lets hope that I could lie better to this guy, shall we.

"You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? She'll have to stay outside. And we've already confirmed with the missing persons report that she is in fact Jaclyn Monroe, and her parents are looking forwards to getting her back."

"Her name is Jace Smith. And she's staying with me."

The man gave up arguing about Jace, who knew to be silent behind my back. "Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."

"It's all right. You go." Rose told me, smiling a little as another woman came over, looking a little nervous about something. Well, the world was on red alert, I supposed.

"Excuse me. Are you the Doctor?"

I nodded at her. "Sure."

"Not now. We're busy." The ID man sighed, shaking her head at her. "Can't you go home?"

The woman didn't give up. "I just need a word in private."

"I suppose so. Don't get in any trouble." I told Rose, before walking into the room, sneaking Jace in with me. She was my main concern right now. They'd make sure that she went back with her parents.

The Sub Prime Minister was addressing everyone at the front, and I sat Jace next to me, checking to make sure her wrist was alright before looking to the front. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please. As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant."

"Of course, the really interesting bit happened three days ago, see, filed away under Any Other Business. The North Sea. A satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation, at one hundred fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens. Spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what?"

Jace's eyes widened a little, standing up besides me, her super smart brain going over board. "If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get? You. They get all of you. It's not a diversion, it's a trap. Doctor..."

"This is all about us." I agreed, taking her hand. "Alien experts. The only people with knowledge how to fight them gathered together in one room." Someone at the front with the Prime Minister let a massive one rip, making Jace and I look at him in bemusement. "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while we're saving the world?"

He gave a sly smile. "Would you rather silent but deadly?" And then the General removed his cap, unzipping his forehead which filled the room with a blue light, Green laughing at it.

"We are the Slitheen." Well, I hadn't heard of them before.

"Thank you all for wearing your ID cards. They'll help to identify the bodies." Green held up a remote activation switch, and we all started getting electrocuted through the cards. Leaving Jace watching in horror as what used to be the General walked towards her.

"Hello, little smart girl. Are you ready to play?"


	2. Saving the World

**Jace:**

Before the creature, or Slitheen, or whatever the hell it wanted to call itself, could get me, I ducked, ripping off the Doctor's ID card before it killed him along with the rest of the people in the room. He grinned at me. "Never under estimate a little smart girl." Then I pushed it around the neck of the big green thing, enveloping it in the electricity.

The Doctor pulled me back out, looking at all the armed police, including the one I threatened, still without a gun. I thought I left it where he could find it. "Oi! If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street. Come on!"

They all followed us, but by the time we got back into the room, they were already ready for us, the alien covered up. Man, this was pretty weird, a few hours ago I was trying to sleep in an alley way again, and now I was helping another alien stop mean aliens taking over the planet. "Where have you been? I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this lightening, this kind of, er, electricity, and they all collapsed."

The policemen checked the bodies and the one I threatened, the Welsh Sergeant spoke. "I think they're all dead."

Green nodded emphatically, pointing at me. "That's what I'm saying. She did it! That girl there with the man's help." Juvie it was then, I guessed.

"I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise." The Doctor tried, still holding my good hand carefully before sighing. "That's never going to work, is it?" The policemen shook their heads. "Fair enough."

And then we were running again, before we got trapped in the corridor, the General, or whatever was wearing his suit, pointed at us both. "Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols, I authorise you to execute this man and take the girl prisoner to pay for the lives of those we've just lost."

Oh, hell no. But the Doctor had an exit plan. "Well, now, yes, you see, er, the thing is, if I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you, Jace and me, little word of advice." The wall behind us dinged and it opened to show a lift. "Don't stand them against the lift!"

We went back into it and went up a floor, seeing another of the big green aliens trapping the other woman and Rose. So I smiled, getting it's attention. "Hello!" They ran in behind it and the Doctor closed the doors, going up again. Then we reached the top floor, seeing a large settee, that the new lady ran behind and I went behind the cabinet with Rose while the Doctor left the lift on the second floor.

But another Slitheen came in, taunting us as Rose pulled me with her behind the curtains. And then two more came in, and I guessed they were the ones from downstairs. "My brothers."

"Happy hunting?"

The female one smiled at them, I could hear it in her voice. "It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear."

"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones."

The female spoke again. "And two ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenalin, one too small for much meet, though fresh enough to bend before she snaps." She pulled back the curtain, and Rose screamed, putting me behind her as the other woman, trying to get in front of us.

"No! Take me first! Take me!"

Then the Doctor burst in with a fire extinguisher, spraying the male Slitheen with CO2, shouting to us. "Out, with me!" I saw a cord for the curtains and yanked at it with my good hand, the other still held tight around my middle as the curtain fell down over Margaret. "Who the hell are you?" He asked the woman, and she still found the time to pull out her ID card, showing her photo.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

I smiled a little, knowing that the extinguisher was quickly running out of CO2. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." And then we ran out as the Doctor dropped the red can, trying to get away from the aliens.

"We need to head to the Cabinet Room." The Doctor told us, as we were like connecting monkeys, the Doctor pulling Harriet, who was pulling Rose who was pulling me. Well, I only had one working hand.

Harry had a good point to say then, the Doctor beaming back at her. "The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens."

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too."

The Slitheen were still chasing us through the corridors and rooms until we managed to get to the Cabinet room where he grabbed a decanter of what looked like whiskey from the side table. I hated that stuff, it always made him... It just made him 10 times worse. "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off." They all took a step back into the outer office. "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens." Harriet said, making me sigh a little.

"Yes. We got that, thanks."

The front Slitheen looked at us then, as I stood closest to the Doctor, my innate curiosity stopping any fear from getting the better of me. "Who are you, Doctor, if not human? Yet you play so easily with this human girl."

"Who's not human?"

"He's not human." Rose replied. "But Jace is, she's just his Ward apparently."

"He's not human?"

"Can I have a bit of hush?"

"Sorry."

The Doctor nodded a little while I was smiling to myself. This was so weird and scary, but it was so fun at the same time. "So, what's the plan?"

"But he's got a Northern accent."

Rose was getting a little frustrated now. "Lots of planets have a north."

"I said hush." They were silent, Harriet looking really sheepish. "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

The one that used to be General Asquith frowned a little. "Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

And this confused them further. "The Slitheen race?"

"Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

That made sense, the female called them her brothers. "So, you're family. A family business." I nodded, starting to understand. "Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?" Rose and Harriet were both looking at me. "Hi, Jaclyn Monroe, my intelligence is 4 times greater than that of your typical 14 year old, got a problem?" They shook their heads. "Thanks."

"Ah, excuse me?" The General pointed to the weird torch thing in the Doctor's hand and the whiskey. "Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

Oh, right. Whiskey wasn't that flammable, at least it wasn't the most volatile. "Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up."

He gave a grin, passing it back to Harriet, who was clutching the Red Box. "Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it."

"You pass it to the left first."

I was to the Doctor's left. "Harriet, I'm 14, not old enough to drink."

"Good point." She took the bottle instead. "Thanks."

The Slitheen smiled a little. "Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose asked us, while I was examining the wall.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street." I muttered. "It was raining too hard to sit outside last year, so I sat in a library and it was the interesting book in there. Stupid cutbacks. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." I found the small panel and pressed a button, causing metal shutters to crash shut across the windows and doors.

The Doctor beamed at me, and then held up his hand for a high five. I held up my bad wrist and he hugged me instead. "You're brilliant. Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And how do we get out?" Rose asked, which made us look at each other, the door, and then back at them.

"Ah."

We didn't know what to do then, and the Doctor grimly saw the man who didn't let Rose into the meeting before hand, dead on the floor and dragged him into a small store room where the also deceased Prime Minister was also laid out. "What was his name?" I asked softly, unable to take my eyes off him. He was dead, and I'd spoken to him, just before it happened. It was just like mum, dad and Katie all over again...

"Who?"

"This one." The Doctor asked, while Rose took my hand giving it a squeeze. "The secretary or whatever he was called."

Harriet thought for a moment. "I don't know. I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."

This seemed to upset her, so he changed the subject. "Sorry. Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?"

"No." Rose sighed a little. "This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too slim. They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans." The Doctor explained to her, and I remembered the weird looking things around their necks. That must be how they did it.

She still didn't understand much. "But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?"

"That's the device around their necks." I told her, getting her to look at me. "It must be some sort of compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller." She smiled a little, then looked at how skinny I was. "Actually, I think I like myself how I am." Yeah, most people thought that.

Harriet got a little annoyed them. "Excuse me, people are dead! This is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry." She smiled a little. "You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him. You wait, Jace'll be the same in a few weeks."

"Well, that's a strange friendship."

"Harriet Jones." The Doctor said, and she looked at him while he had a thoughtful expression. "I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Oh, hardly."

But he didn't drop it, desperate to know. "Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

Harriet just shook her head. "Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs." No one was ever unimportant though.

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Rose asked, and we both looked at her. That would kill a lot more people than just the Slitheen, did she not remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The elder woman frowned at her. "You're a very violent young woman."

"I'm serious. We could." I'd rather not be a mass murder, at least not at 14.

"Well, there would be nothing like that in there. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yeah, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

She smiled a little at me. "What Jace said."

The Doctor, who'd been pretty silent for a while, frowned a little. "Say that again."

"What, about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

Um, OK... "Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN. I read about that not long ago, when I got snowed into another library overnight." That had been my best nights sleep for a while.

Rose scoffed a little. "Like that's ever stopped them." Good point.

"Exactly, given our past record." Harriet agreed, while I sat on the table, swinging my legs absently. This was definitely the weirdest day of my life, and possibly the best since the accident. "And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important." The Doctor and I said together. We were pretty well matched, and I was glad I trusted him and let him take me into his bizarre and wonderful ship.

The eldest woman sighed again, pacing slightly, her long skirt swishing across the posh carpet. Poshest place I'd ever been and probably ever would go. "If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal." I guessed this was normal for the Doctor and Rose.

"What do they want, though?"

I paused for a moment, thinking of the main reasons humans invaded other place. "Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet listed and the Doctor looked impressed.

"You're very good at this."

She smiled a little. "Thank you."

"Harriet Jones." He said again, looking really annoyed that he couldn't place her name. "Why do I know that name?"

There was a beep and Rose looked shocked before pulling out her small mobile phone. "Oh, that's me."

"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?"

She shrugged, indicating to the Doctor. "He zapped it. Super phone."

"Then we can phone for help." Harry realised, pointing to it. "You must have contacts."

The Doctor nodded, looking grim. "Dead downstairs, yeah."

"It's Mickey."

He sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."

"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all." She smiled proudly, showing us a photo of the Slitheen that he'd sent us. Well, nice one.

She dialled him and we got to work on trying to determine exactly what had happened there. "No, no, no, no, no. Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

We heard Jackie in the background. "I could've died!" Yeah, we still could, thanks.

"Is she all right, though?" Rose asked worriedly. "Don't put her on, just tell me." Yeah, Jackie on the phone, you could always hear her, like she was never going to shut up. Her phone bill must be through the roof.

The Doctor took Rose's phone, and got right to the point. "Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?"

He sighed again, looking really pained to say what he was about to. "Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you."

There was a pause before he came back through as the Doctor put the phone through the speaker on the table. "It says password."

 **"** Say again."

"It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo. Two Fs, one L." I was so memorising that for future use.

Jackie came back through again, sounding curious. "So, what's that website?"

"All the secret information known to mankind." Well, some of it. "See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."

The Doctor decided to be mean again. "Mickey, you were born in the dark."

Rose sighed a little. "Oh, leave him alone."

"Thank you." Mickey replied, sounding a little smug at that. "Password again."

"Just repeat it every time."

I started thinking a little then, wondering bout things. "Big Ben - why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

Harriet frowned a little. "You said to gather the experts, to kill them."

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon." The Doctor scoffed, shaking his head a little. "You don't need to crash land in the middle of London. Nicely though, Jace." I liked this, I had people taking me seriously.

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red alert." Rose added, making another good point. "What would they do that for?"

"Oh, listen to her." Jackie sneered a little, and I felt a little pang of anger. She was being really good, how many other people could still think straight while under attack like this?

"At least I'm trying."

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind." She said haughtily, and I could hear how scared she really was for her daughter then. "Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappear off the face of the Earth."

Rose interjected then, trying to defend him. "I told you what happened."

 **"** I'm talking to him." Jacks snapped, sending us all into silence. "'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?"

"I'm fine."

"Is she safe?" She asked again. "Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer? Because you've just brought another kid into this, and this is not what she needs." No, this was exactly what I needed. To get away from this planet.

The Doctor didn't answer, but was staring silently between Rose and I for a moment until Mickey came back through and the topic was dropped. For now. "We're in."

"Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

There was a little noise as he did so, and he sounded confused. "What is it?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." There was a small blip from Jackie, who was still complaining, but then there was silence. "It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?"

He shook his head a little. "Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." Something dinged on the other end. "Hush!"

 **"** That's not me. Go and see who that is." Mickey told Jackie in the background, who complained a little, saying about the time. "Well, go and tell them that."

"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?"

But then there was a slam as the door shut again, and Jackie came back, screeching to high heaven. "It's him! It's the thing, it's the Slipeen!" Slitheen, if it's going to kill you you may as well call it by it's proper name.

"They've found us."

 **"** Mickey, I need that signal." Uh, I'd rather they lived, and so would everyone else. Mickey gave me food from time to time.

"Never mind the signal, get out! Mum, just get out! Get out!"

"We can't. It's by the front door." Mickey told us, sounding scared now. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

Harriet looked at the Doctor and I. "There's got to be some way of stopping them! You're supposed to be the expert and 4 times smarter than your average 14 year old, think of something!"

What did she think we were doing?! "We're trying!"

 **"** That's my mother." Rose told him softly, while they were making a plan to get out on the other end.

That seemed to snap him into focus. "Right, If we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green." Obviously.

"Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin and age, as well as body fat."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology."

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine?" Must have been before he found me then.

"Narrows it down."

Mickey came back through. "It's getting in!"

"They hunt like it's a ritual."

"Narrows it down."

And then Harriet came through. "Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er-"

"Bad breath!"

"That's it!"

"Calcium decay!" I realised, looking at the Doctor who was grinning even bigger now.

"Now, that narrows it down! Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter." Mickey scoffed, and we heard the door break apart.

"Get into the kitchen! Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!" I shouted, hoping that they heard and knew what to grab.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet shouted and I frowned. "You're too young, dear, but it's a film." Um, OK...

"Just like Hannibal." The Doctor agreed though. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?"

Well, that was rather obvious. "It's your kitchen."

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose told him, making me laugh. She knew his place better than he did.

Jackie came through then, sounding frustrated. "What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!"

There was a pause as Jackie got to work mixing things together. "Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs."

The Doctor and I grimaced at Rose. "And you kiss this man?" All those smells mixed together...

There was a pause then and there was a large farting noise before a popping squelch that sounded vile. "Hannibal?" Rose questioned after a moment. I was curious myself to be honest.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet explained, which made sense but it would have taken him years.

I laughed a little. "Oh. Well, there you go then." The adults all toasted a glass from the decanter while I went without. I didn't mind. I knew what alcohol could do to someone.

And then Mickey came back through, sounding terrified. "Listen to this."

Whatever we were listening to was crackly through the speaker but the voice of one of the Slitheen was unmistakable. "Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads, and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds."

That did not sound good. "What?"

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the Heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

The Doctor looked alcohol round the 3 of us with a stony expression on his face. "He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

Harriet was the first to speak. "Do you think they'll believe him?"

"They did last time. They believe he really is the prime minister. That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because us, you us get scared, we lash out." I'd never done that. I'd been too scared to even move when, when he... Stop it Jace! Just stop it!

Rose nodded a little as the Doctor came over and wrapped an arm around me, letting me rest into him. I was so tired... "They release the defence code."

"And the Slitheen go nuclear."

"But why?" Harriet asked, before the Doctor pulled me over to the shutters and opened them.

"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth." He said, his voice devoid of emotion. "They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

The female, the only one back in her skin suit, smiled at us from the front. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

Harriet was horrified at the prospect, staring at them. "But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?"

"Profit." I sniffed, understanding now. "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

The female, who I think used the human name Margaret, nodded again. "The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor, Street Girl. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives."

"Bargain."

"I give you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you." The Doctor warned her, and I looked at his face, at how serious he was. He was so protective over us, the whole human race and he had everyone to choose from. Why did he choose to help me over everyone else? Because I was smart? I was hurt? Why?

"What, you? Trapped in your box? With your daughter is she? Jace Smith, the little street girl?"

"Yes. Me. And Jace." And then he closed the shutters again, on Margaret's laughing face, just as she started to worry.

We waited until morning, or at least Jackie and Mickey told us it was morning. We were in complete artificial light because of the shutters. "All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested, but we didn't have enough time for that. It was only a couple of days old, that took weeks.

Rose was still on phone duty. Well, it was her boyfriend and mum. "Mickey, any luck?"

"There's loads of emergency numbers." OK, that sounded promising. "They're all on voicemail." Maybe not then.

"Voicemail dooms us all."

"If we could just get out of here." I muttered, picking at the cast. My wrist was feeling a lot better right now. Alien tech I supposed.

The Doctor sighed a little. "There's a way out."

"What?" We all looked at him sharply.

"There's always been a way out."

I frowned a little, getting to my feet again. "Then why don't we use it?"

"Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe. Or that Jace will be."

Jackie came right back through sounding terrified at the idea and we hadn't even heard it. "Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."

He sighed a little, shaking his head. "That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone dies."

"Do it." I told him, making him look at me.

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me? You met me yesterday, and you'd already put your life in my hands?"

"Yeah. I was dead with or without you." I admitted, knowing that it was getting too cold for me again, and that I had no where I could hide that was warm. A fire was a give away that someone was there, and I was trying to stay hidden.

"Please, Doctor." Jackie was pleading now. "Please. She's my daughter. She's just a kid, they both are."

 **[Cabinet Room]**

"Do you think I don't know that?" He told her, staring at the phone. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

Rose and I were both looking at him. "Then what're you waiting for?"

His gaze was hard and unyielding, fixed on the both of us. "I could save the world but lose you two." That looked like it was going to be so hard on him, when like he said, he'd only known me for a day.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine."

There was silence at that until Jackie spoke up from the other end of the phone. "And who the hell are you?!

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." Well, at least she didn't get the ID card out. "The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

"How do we get out?" Rose asked, but I looked at the door, knowing the Slitheen were still outside it.

"We don't." I said softly. "We stay here."

Then the Doctor grabbed the Emergency Protocols from the Red Box, as Mickey got to work hacking the Navy. "Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything."

"We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

He nodded a little, though Mickey wouldn't be able to see it. "Right, we need to select a missile."

"We can't go nuclear." I reminded him. "We don't have the defence codes. And I don't want a repeat of Hiroshima, that was horrific."

The Doctor gave me a small smile for that, which told me he approved of my thinking. "We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A" I didn't know anything about missiles, seeing as books on those were rarely in libraries.

"That's the one. Select." There was a pause. "You ready for this?" Mickey agreed quietly. "Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

Jackie took in a big breath on the other end. "Oh, my God."

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, pointing to the walls.

"Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big." I replied, looking at the other three people in the room. "All right, now I'm making the decision. I'm not going to die, I've survived enough on the streets, and this isn't how I'm going. We're going to ride this one out. Earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a door frame. Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on."

Harriet started helping me, as did Rose, and I knew the missile was heading up the channel as we went **. "** It's on radar." Mickey told us, once it was nearly empty. "Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting it."

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy." I shouted, wondering what the hell was in half this stuff to make it this heavy. Well, politicians, they liked meaningless paper work and alcohol.

 **"** Five five six neutralised." Mickey shouted, as the Doctor grabbed Rose's phone and ran into the cupboard with us.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you both." Harriet shouted as the sound of the missile was getting closer. "Hannibal!" OK, it was official, I was going to have to watch that film.

The Doctor quickly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to the ground as the cupboard shook and rolled around in what must have been the remains of the building before we fell still. I was still in the Doctors arms, my face pressed close into him as I breathed hard, expecting us to suddenly explode again and be cooked inside the metal box.

But then the Doctor stood up, pulling me at the same time, wiping my hair off my face and checking me over before pushing the steel door off. Harriet went out fist, looking at it with a small smile. "Made in Britain."

"Oh, my God. Are you all right?" A soldier asked, the one I'd threatened again, running up. Well, I didn't get him killed at least.

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North." She showed the ID again. This was getting ridiculous, people should know who she is by now. "I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

The man nodded, looking at her and then warily at me. I waved cheerily with my broken wrist, showing him that I was in fact hurt. "Yes, ma'am."

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out." She sighed, and then put her hand to her mouth. "Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go." The Doctor suggested, still holding my good hand lightly as we manoeuvred the rubble of the most famous political home in the UK. I was definitely an anarchist, I helped blow it up.

She stared at him for a moment. "Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for you." Rose smiled.

"I would too, if a, I was old enough, and b, I wasn't legally missing and presumed dead."

Harriet gave me a look at that, as she looked at the massive crowds in front of us. "l Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on! We're safe! The Earth is safe!"

 **"** I thought I knew the name." The Doctor smiled at us, following her at a slower pace. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age."

 **DW**

A little while later, Rose was with her mum and Mickey, and I'd been taken with the Doctor to the TARDIS, where he changed the cast on my wrist, scanning it to show how quickly the break had started fusing back together. "You're a fast healer, even with the technology." He commented, putting a TARDIS blue sleeve over it and quickly scribbling a doodle on it, saying get well soon..

"Really?" I laughed, grabbing the pen and doing a squiggle on his hand before ducking away. "Why did you help me? Out of everyone out there, why me?"

The Doctor gave me a warm smile, then walked forward and hugged me a little. "Because you needed to get away. You're limited here. You could be smarter than Einstein, Jace, and you were just living on the street instead on maximising your potential."

"So you wanted to make me smarter?"

"No, well, yes, but I also want to make sure you never end up on the streets again. You really don't deserve to end up back there, with them. I've been on the social listing, and Jaclyn Monroe isn't here any longer, she was found dead in the rubble of 10 Downing Street. I've given you a new identity. Jace Smith. I hope you don't mind, I had to put you down as my daughter, means it's easier to keep you tied to me if you get lost."

H, he got me out... No matter what, I'd never be taken back to them... I was free and just... I could do anything. "Thank you. Oh my God, thank you do much..." I hugged him again, smiling more than I had in 7 years because I really just didn't have anything since then. Being carted from foster home to foster home because no one could handle me, and then being adopted by a family that from day one hit me, just without ever getting it to show.

"You're welcome, Jace. Now, we need to call Rose and let her know how long we're going to be."

I nodded and followed him back through to the console room, where he called Rose's mobile, putting it on speaker. "Hello?" She answered hesitantly.

"Right, we'll be a couple of hours, then we can go. Jace is coming with us, no matter what your mother says."

"You've got a phone?" Well, obviously.

"You think I can travel through space and time, as well as hack into the social records to kill someone yet recreate them as someone completely different and I haven't got a phone? Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."

There was an awkward silence before she came back through. "Er, my mother's cooking."

"Good." He grinned, making me laugh. "Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer."

"She's cooking tea. For us. Including Jace."

"I don't do that. And Jace already doesn't eat much we don't need her being poisoned."

Rose took offence to that. "My mums cooking is not that bad, thank you very much. She wants to get to know you."

The Doctor just shrugged. "Tough. I've got better things to do. Which includes not having food poisoning."

"It's just tea"

"Not to me it isn't. And Jace doesn't want to do anything with people." Actually, I didn't mind so much, Jackie seemed to have warmed up to me now. A mother figure would be quite nice.

"She's my mother."

"Well she's not mine, or Jace's."

She sighed a little. "That's not fair."

"Well, you can stay there if you want, but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horsehead Nebula." Wow, and I thought the Comets every August were amazing. "Fires are burning ten million miles wide. I could fly the Tardis right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out. Hurtle right across the sky and end up anywhere. Your choice."

 **DW**

Mickey was sitting on the rubbish bin reading the newspaper while the young boy, who was constantly throwing things at me, finishing cleaning off the Bad Wolf tag he'd written off the side of it. That tag was written everywhere, I'd seen it ever since I ran away. "Good lad. Graffiti that again, or throw things at Jace and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

He ran off and Mickey spoke up from the bin behind us. "I just went down the shop, and I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." They said it was all a hoax. "How could they do that? They saw it."

"They're just not ready. You're happy to believe in something that's invisible, but if it's staring you in the face, nope, can't see it. There's a scientific explanation for that. You're thick."

I shrugged, smiling a little. "We're just idiots."

"Well, not all of you." The Doctor grinned at me and then Mickey. Who grinned back. "Present for you, Mickey." He handed him a CD. "That's a virus. Put it online. It'll destroy every mention of me, besides being Jace's father legally. I'll cease to exist."

He frowned a little, looking at it like it was about to blow up. "What do you want to do that for?"

"Because you're right, I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

Jackie and Rose came out then, looking like her mum was begging her to stay. "How can you say that and then take her with you? You're taking a kid, a proper, actual kid. Jace is 14."

"You could look after them. Come with us. Be Jace's big brother."

Mickey considered it for a moment. "I can't. This life of yours, it's just too much. I couldn't do it. Don't tell her I said that. But I'll always be a big brother to you if you want, Jacey." Then I hugged him, smiling at the idea of that. "You're an alright kid, you are, Jace."

"Got enough stuff?" The Doctor asked, looking at Rose's massive bag. That was more than I had when I got adopted, more than I'd ever had.

She gave him a big grin. "Last time I stepped in there, it was spur of the moment. Now I'm signing up. You're stuck with me. And you're definitely going to need me when Jace has girl related problems."

The Doctor considered that, and then nodded. "Definitely, you can definitely take that job." Really? I can sort myself out you know.

Rose gave the Doctor her rucksack and went to Mickey, giving him a bigger smile. "Come with us. There's plenty of room."

"No chance." The Doctor said quickly, defending him. He chose not to come and he didn't want him to be embarrassed. He could be nice sometimes. "He's a liability, I'm not having him on board."

Rose folded her arms at him. "We'd be dead without him."

"My decision is final."

She sighed, giving him a goodbye kiss. "Sorry."

"Good luck, yeah. Make sure he doesn't make Jace into a mini him."

There was a bigger grin, and the Doctor look offended. "What's wrong with me? I'd make her amazing."

And then Jackie spoke up. "You still can't promise me. What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and Rose and Jace's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?"

"Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine." Rose tried to comfort, her, giving her a tight hug. "I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds. So stop worrying. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?"

And then we got into TARDIS, and disappeared wherever we were going. This was my new life...


	3. Help

**_Ok, the topic of this chapter isn't pretty. It's really, not nice and I know that, I just think it works well for the story line. If I affect any of you for this, I am really sorry, and I'll be leaving helplines for this type of thing at the bottom. It's child abuse and it needs to be stopped, it's disgusting. I'm also here if anyone wants to talk about it on DM. Thanks for reading and I hope I don't make anyone cry. Izzi xxx_**

 **The Doctor:**

Jace hadn't wanted to go anywhere for a while once Rose had headed off to bed, so she'd stayed in the console room with me, just chatting and laughing about nerdy things that she did know. She'd missed a lot of pop culture by being on the streets, so the extent of her TV knowledge was mostly kids programmes, Recess, Lilo and Stitch, that sort of thing.

But with how exhausted she was, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep on the jump seat, tucked into the smallest ball possible as she slept. I grabbed a blanket from under the console, covering her in it, which made her smile a tiny bit. God, she was so young. Was I doing the right thing, taking her with me instead of leaving her where it was safe with Jackie? She could have gone to an advanced placement school, made a real difference there.

The biggest place she could learn was with me though. Her brain was so fast at learning, she'd learn everything she could on Earth by the time she was 17, and then she'd be bored for the rest of her life. I kissed her hair and stroked her cheek before standing up and tinkering with the console.

I'd managed to fine tune about half of it, before she started shaking, tossing and turning on the seat. "Jace?" She was still asleep, her face contorted as I realised it was a nightmare. "Jace, you need to wake up now. Jace!" I shook her shoulder, but she just flinched away, bruises coming up on her shoulders from where I'd touched them. "It's a night terror... Jace, please, love, come on. You need to wake up!"

"No, no, get off me, please!" She started fighting, pushing me away, still sleeping so I got behind her, sitting her head on my lap. "Stop, please! Don't touch me, please, please..."

"Jace... Love, it's the Doctor, it's no one going to hurt you..." I whispered, stroking her face gently, watching thin bruises form as I did before they faded as her body realised it wasn't real. "Jace, come on, it's time to wake up now..."

Jace suddenly jolted back up, breathing hard and looking around in horror until she just broke, bursting into tears and hugging her knees to her chest. God, I hadn't had to deal with nightmares in such a long time, not after Alyce and Caleb. I did my best, pulling her into a hug and rocking her as she sobbed, whatever her nightmare had been of scaring her even in her waking life.

"I've got you, Jace. It's fine, I've got you." I whispered, kissing her long ash hair as I held her close. "It's not real, it was never real, it was just a dream."

She shook her head, hiding her face in my chest. "It was real... Oh god it happened, it was real..." She cried, still shaking and I pulled her face back, wiping away the tears from her cheek. "It happened, it really happened..."

"Jace... Tell me, tell me what happened. I could help you, I'm a Doctor, remember?" But she just shook her head again, more tears falling faster than I could wipe them away. "Jacey, I can't help you if you don't talk to me. Come on, Jacey Bear, please..."

"H, he..." She shook her head again, not able to say it. "I, I can't... I, it h, hurts..."

I thought for a moment, before patting down my pockets and pulling out a pen and a small note book. A lot of abuse victims had problems saying what had happened to them, but there was more freedom with a pen and paper. You weren't controlled by the tears closing up your throat, or the other emotions welling up inside you. "Write. Write it down, Jace."

Shakily, she took the pen and book from my hands, turning to the first clean page and then carefully writing in neat, sloping italic with eloquent swirls. _He stripped me down and, and he... made me, he made me do it. I didn't want to but he held me down._

Oh my God... He raped her... I took the pen back from her and wrote down something for her, thinking it would be easier if neither of us spoke, just letting the dull sound of the TARDIS accompany the scratch of the pen. **It wasn't your fault, Jace. He abused you and you need help.** I hadn't seen my writing yet, not since I regenerated. It was bold and blocky compared to hers. **Please, let me help you, Jacey. I can help if you let me.**

She took the pen again, with a shake breath and started writing again. _It hurt so much, I just kept fighting him, but I didn't get free and he made me. I tried to forget, but, I can't when I'm asleep. I can't stop it, it just keeps going and going. I just want it to stop..._

 **Jace, if you talk to me, I can help. Please just let me help you. He hurt you in a way that should never happen. Please, please tell me everything. How, how old were you?**

 _I, I was 11... the first time._ He'd done it more than once to her... How could someone do that? To a defenceless 11 year old girl who'd already lost so much, her parents and her sister, being the only one to survive. The amount of survivors guilt she must have already had, and he made that so much worse. _He kept doing it, up until I left. I ran and I never looked back._

 **Jace, believe me, nothing here is your fault, Love. You're safe here with me. I promise that I will always be here for you. No matter what.**

She smiled weakly at that and turned to give me massive hug again, burying her face in my neck as I kept stroking her hair, just trying to let her get to her voice in her own time. "Thank you... Thank you for getting me off the street and for just not leaving me when everyone else has, even if it wasn't by choice..."

"It's OK, my Jace. Jacey Jay." I laughed, kissing her hair again, but she pulled back, wrinkling up her nose so that she looked about 5. "Not like that then? Jacey Bear? Uh... Jacey Moo? Jacey Jace?"

"You're making up more stupid nicknames for me than my dad did." She giggled a little. "He called me Jacey Lyn. Mum never really said much, it was always my dad. He was the one who got me into music, he could play the drums. I can play the piano, the guitar, a little bit of violin and I can sing."

That gave me a brilliant idea. I stood up and then swung her around so that she was clinging to my back like a little monkey as I walked further into the TARDIS, past Rose's room where there was some snoring coming out, making us quietly laugh and make piggy noises as I headed for the music room. I put her down outside, not telling her where we were, just wanting to see her face as she walked in to see the massive Steinway and Sons Piano in there, as well as the guitars and all the instruments in the universe that she could learn to play.

Her face lit up as she saw it, running her fingers lightly across the top of it and then looking at me as though for permission to play. "It's why I brought you here, Jacey. Play whatever you want, there's a touch screen for you to choose, and the TARDIS will only show you things that you know and like."

"This is incredible..." She breathed, sitting down carefully on the seat, perching right on the end, like she didn't want to get it mucky before touching the screen and looking through the list of thing. Once she'd chosen, she looked at the notes briefly before starting to play. It was Numb, by Linkin Park. One of their newer ones from 2005. Technically it was 2006 for her, but same difference.

Jace slipped a few times, her fingers unpractised and her wrist still causing her problems, but she did amazingly well for someone of only 14. She sang to herself in places, her voice soft as she did so, meaning that she was probably holding back from what she could do. You could see how much music meant to her, how she loved it in her face, how she was smiling and just so much happier just in the presence of the piano that was so much older than her.

What I didn't tell her, was that it was Mozart's.

"You're an amazing musician, Jace." I told her once she'd finished, nearly all aspects of the scared little girl gone already, just the tell tale puffy eyes, streaked cheeks and the bruises from where I'd touched her shoulders and her body had reacted. "You need to get some actual sleep. Without the nightmares which I think I can help with."

I handed her a small blister pack of pills, which she looked at in confusion. "Sleeping tablets? I can get to sleep just fine, Doctor, it's just the problems while I am asleep and the waking up that's hard."

"Jace, they're not sleeping tablets. They're anti-dream tablets." I explained, knowing she'd understand. "What these little lovelies do, is shut down your imagination centre for the night. You still sleep under your own steam, well, lack of steam if you're sleeping, and then when you wake up, it wakes up with you."

"That's incredible. Your race creates these types of things? Medicines that help people, helping through out the universes in points that aren't fixed?" She asked, looking at them hard, probably trying to translate the Old High Gallifreyan the ingredients were listed in.

I shook my head at her sadly. "No, they never did. I did. I couldn't just watch the universe in trouble and leave it like that. I helped while my race just stood there and did nothing. Just me and my granddaughter."

"Granddaughter? Doctor, how old are you?"

There was no point in keeping anything from her. "I'm 900 years old, I'm from the planet Gallifrey and I am the last of my species. I am alone in the universe."

Jace just paused, before walking a little closer, closing the lid of the piano carefully. "I'm alone in universe as well. I've lost everyone and everything I ever had. I have no home, and I have no family. I want to help."

"It's dangerous, Jaclyn. What we just did was easy compared to some of the things I've had to do. It's not always safe, and it's not always fun and games." I told her, dead serious now. She was just a kid, like Jackie and Mickey said. She needed to know that one day she could not come back. That this could kill her. "Jaclyn Allison Monroe, you could die if you stay with me. I'm giving you a choice of either staying with me, and risking yourself, or I can take you back and you can stay with Jackie if she'll have you, or I know Mickey will."

She shook her head right away, and I could see how afraid she was of going and staying on Earth. "I can't. I can't go back to constantly worrying that one day one of them will see me and I'll go back to that life. You said you adopted me through the social, and that I'm your daughter. So be my dad."

Could I do that again? Could I be there for a kid after losing both of my own, as well as Susan, her son, and my wife, Eleanor. I felt like I failed them, after the War. I should have done something to get them out, to save my family. Could I make it up to them by being there for Jace? Being a substitute father for her?

"OK."

 ** _Here's the helplines:_**

 ** _England and Wales:_** 0808 8029999

 _ **America:**_ 1.800. (4673)

 _ **Childline:**_ 0800 1111

 **Love, Izabelah Petrova xxx**


	4. Colour without the words

**Jace:**

"So what is it? What's wrong?" I asked the Doctor as we walked out of the TARDIS into a dimly lit area with a lot of display cases around. Rose was with us, obviously, and she'd decided to grab a hold of me this morning and get me to experiment with make up. The Doctor hadn't said anything about it, but I thought I looked ridiculous. At least I was still wearing jeans and a shirt. I couldn't stand dresses.

He shrugged a little. "Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course."

"Where are we?"

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

And then I got to ask the fun question. "And when are we?"

"Two thousand and twelve." You were kidding me.

Rose was still getting used to this as well. "God, that's so close. So I should be twenty six, and Jace 20." Then I found a light switch, and everything became a little more clear. "Blimey. It's a great big museum."

"An alien museum." The Doctor added, leading us through the different aisles, looking at a few things in the glass cases. "Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship." No, freaking, way. 1950's Roswell in the Nevada Desert? Seriously?!

And then I saw something that I recognised. "That's a bit of Slitheen! That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed." Rose and I were both flabbergasted at the idea of someone managing to actually kill one of those things in a way that wouldn't end in it exploding like poor Mickey's kitchen.

"Oh, look at you." The Doctor had stopped a little further up, looking at some sort of cybernetic head.

"What is it?"

"An old friend of mine." He considered that for a short moment. "Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old." Another pause, just as I opened my mouth. "You say anything there, my Jacey and I will definitely ground you." Ah, he knew me so well already.

"Sorry, it was tempting but not worth it. Is that where the signal's coming from, though?"

He shook his head, taking my newly healed hand in his and giving it a brief squeeze. I like that, made me feel safe. "No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." He then touched the display case and an alarm went off, making armed guards rush in from all sides, cutting off an escape to the TARDIS.

"If someone's collecting aliens," Rose said softly, moving a little closer herself, "that makes you Exhibit A."

We were then lead through, or escorted by armed prison guards, through to a room where someone was being shown another thing by a younger guy, who looked around Rose's age. They were really guessing wrong, it wasn't anything to do with fuel like the younger guy thought, it was an instrument.

"I really wouldn't hold it like that." The Doctor and I said together, and the posh looking woman snapped at us to be quiet. What was it with the American stereotype? They really don't help themselves at times. "Really, though, that's wrong."

The boy looked at us in confusion. "Is it dangerous?"

"No, it just looks silly."

I reached for the item with the Doctor's nod, and suddenly there were guns cocking all around me. But the older man handed me the palm sized object. "You just need to be," I stroked it gently, making a note and worked out all the notes from it. "Delicate." Then I made several notes, turning it into a pretty tune, and as usual I could see the streams of light that came from it. I loved my sound synaesthesia, it was how I learnt music so quickly. I'd have loved this, to learn about it more and how the sound was created.

"It's a musical instrument."

The Doctor nodded, putting a proud hand on my shoulder as the man reached to take it back. "And it's a long way from home."

"Here, let me." He took it back and his touch was harsher, making me flinch at the lights that came from it, giving me a horrible taste. Not nice at all.

"I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision." And then he finally got it, the streaks of blue and purple floating around me like my personal northern lights. "Very good. Quite the expert."

"As are you." He casually tossed it to the side, on the floor. That was a beautiful instrument, how could you disrespect it like that? "Who exactly are you both?" Nice one, forget Rose then.

The Doctor gave him a warm smile. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my daughter Jace. And who are you?"

"Like you don't know." He scoffed. "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

His smile became a cheeky grin. "Pretty much sums me up, yeah."

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice. You're quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty, as is your daughter." Uh, no.

Rose finally got a word in then. "She's going to smack you if you keep calling her she."

"She's English too!" He looked over at the younger guy, still looking really nervous. "Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend or two." The Doctor pulled me closer to him protectively. Thank you...

"This is Mister Henry Van Statten." The boy said, and we still had no clue.

Rose was the one to vocalise this, and I think she felt good to get a little bit of revenge. "And who's he when he's at home?"

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet."

"Don't be stupid. No one owns the internet."

Van Statten smiled at that. "And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?"

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum." The Doctor nodded, and I took Rose's hand as well, so we were mostly able to stick together. "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?"

The Doctor was still smiling, not really concerned yet. "I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."

"And yet, I captured you. Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?" It looked like there was a lot of things in cages down there, just a lot of them had been killed and stuffed for it.

I lifted my head a little. "You tell us."

Van Statten was still trying to be smarter than ky adopted father. "The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

Rose broke it up as as they stared at each other silently for a moment. "Blimey, you can smell the testosterone."

"Goddard," the posh looking woman stepped forward. "Inform the Cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the older girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, and your musically talented daughter, come and see my pet."

And then we left Rose with him, Statten leading us down further into the base and into a more techy type area. "We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside."

"Inside?" Ok, that sounded interesting. "Inside what?"

Another man was already down there when when arrived, smiling at his boss. Well, if he was rich enough own the Internet, tips would be huge. "Welcome back, sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?" The Doctor questioned, and I agreed. Crappy name for it.

He smiled at us. "Thought of it myself. Good, isn't it? Although I'd much to prefer to find out it's real name."

"Here, you'd better put these on." We were both handed a pair of gauntlets. "The last guy that touched it burst into flames."

"I won't touch it then." He paused, looking at me. "Jacey, put them on please."

I did as I was told, surprisingly and Van Statten smiled smugly. "Go ahead, Doctor and musical genius Jace. Impress me."

He took my hand and lead me through the heavy metal doors that then closed behind us. It was very dark. "Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor and this is Jace."

A white light blinked next to a blue glow and I felt him stiffen. "Doc Tor?"

"Impossible."

"The Doctor?" Ok, this wasn't sounding, good as he backed away, holding me behind him, the most protective he'd been since my first night. The lights come up, revealing pepperpot type thing being held in chains. "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The Doctor pulled me with him back to the bulkhead, hammering on the door in terror. "Let us out! Get Jace out of here!"

"Exterminate!" I was getting scared now, expecting some sort of weapon to be discharged and kill us both at any moment. "You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!"

Its gun arm twitched as I peered through the Doctor's arms, but nothing happened. "It's not working." He laughed, pulling me back with him as the creature looked at its faulty weapon. "Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?"

"Keep back!"

The Doctor stood inches away, staring into its eyepiece, while I stayed back, watching him in horror. What was he doing, this thing wanted him dead! "What for? What're you going to do to me and Jacey? If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing. What the hell are you here for?"

"I am waiting for orders."

"What does that mean?" I asked softly, hugging my arms around myself, not sure if I was more scared of the creature or the Doctor like this. He was angry, and, and like that the sound of his voice was lashing out at my senses, raw and red.

The Dalek looked at me instead. "I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders."

"Well you're never going to get any. Not ever." The Doctor snapped, another round or harsh red light jolting out from him.

The Dalek was neutral in comparison, more yellow than red. "I demand orders!"

"They're never going to come!" He shouted again, making me drop, covering my eyes and ears, trying to block it out but my senses were just constantly attacked. "Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen. I made it happen." W, what?

"You destroyed us?"

The Doctor nodded solemnly. "I had no choice."

"And what of the Time Lords?"

"Dead. They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."

"And the coward survived. To adopt a human." This Dalek, a creature that the Doctor had been scared of had remembered me when the Doctor himself was more engrossed in the rage. It was getting to the stage that I could see it, dark purple around his head and heart, hearts, both sides. He was really so alien...

The Doctor finally looked back at me, and I glanced up at him through my hair, knowing there were tears dripping down my face. "Yeah, I adopted Jace. Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me. Poor little thing. But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left."

"I am alone in the universe."

"Yep."

"So are you." The Dalek told him. "We are the same. She is not your real daughter."

"We're not the same! I'm not-" There was a pause, and the room fell into a darkness with the absence of the bright colours of the rage from the Doctor and the pain from the Dalek. "No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve. Exterminate." And then he pulled a lever on the nearby console, lighting up the Dalek with electricity.

I vaguely remembered hearing myself screaming at him to stop, until we were both dragged from the room, the sound and light of electricity attacking my senses more than anything. And then I blacked out for a while.

Then when I woke up, it wasn't the Dalek screaming, it was the Doctor, chained and pulled tight on a torturous looking thing. And then I realised I was chained too, right next to him. "No! Let me go, please, let me go!"

"Two hearts!" Van Statten was laughing, looking at the scan of the Doctor while he breathed hard, huffs of blue from each breath. "Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this."

"So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it." I shouted, pulling at my chains, seeing that I was stripped down without a shirt as well. At least he left me with my bra, because for an undersized street girl, the breast fairy had still come in lashings for a 14 year old.

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor, Jacey." No, only the Doctor and Mickey could call me that. "Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?"

And then the Doctor spoke, still looking like he was in a lot of pain from the scan, whatever it was. "Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I will be true to myself and continue."

"Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"

"Nothing can escape the Cage." And then he blasted me with the laser instead, making me scream in pain, the colours of my own screams in black and green, shooting out around me in lighting streaks.

The Doctor looked at me in horror. "Stop! Stop it, she's human, just leave her! Jace, Jace, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." It stopped and all I wanted was to curl into a ball but I couldn't move, my arms pulled out around me. "Jace, my Jace, I'm sorry. But it's woken up. It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!"

And then he hit it again on me, just to listen to my screams, accompanied by the Doctor pulling at his chains to look at me. Until the tannoy went. "Condition red! Condition red! I repeat, this is not a drill!"

"Release us if you want to live." The Doctor said, and then we were dropped, and I gasped, everything so raw and heightened at the noise. He came right over to me, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close. "Jace, my Jace, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm sorry, I didn't. Your poor senses right now... I'm sorry..."

He pulled me up with him, and we were lead into an office where the cage was on a large wall TV, so much bigger than anything I'd ever seen. Apparently size really did matter in the future. "You've got to keep it in that cell."

"Doctor, Jace, it's all my fault." Rose told us, on the screen, near where the Dalek was. No, no way.

"I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations."

The Doctor shook his head, trying to keep his voice level, but that just meant dark grey replaced the other colours. At least it was dull, and it didn't hurt my eyes. "A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat."

Something happened then and the soldiers started open firing, and I flinched at each and every small bang, a little firework of silver. "Rose, get out of there!"

The lights started flickering then, and my vision was lit by the sounds around me, and then we were told they were leaving the cage. "We're losing power. It's draining the base. Oh, my God. It's draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah."

That made sense. It was in the system. "It's downloading."

"Downloading what?"

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down."

"It's not just energy." I said softly, looking the pulsing lights in the walls, all the power, the internet and it was all flowing down to the cage. "That Dalek just absorbed the entire internet. It knows everything."

 **"** The cameras in the vault have gone down."

"We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it now!" The Doctor snapped, covering my ears to dull the sounds, so all I could see was the colour, telling me the emotions but not the words. I liked it when that happened. Because I would put stolen headphones in and just watch the world from above, the people living their day to day lives. Just the colours without words.

There were just swirls of it until he pulled away, talking about the weapons. "This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?"

Goddard nodded. "Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive." Van Statten insisted, and it took everything I had not to punch him in the face. "We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

And at that, I did punch him, the dull thrum of pain in my hand sending light yellow up my arm. "Leaving everyone trapped with it. Rose is down there. I won't let that happen, because I have 2 people in my life and she is one of them. Have you got that? It's got to go through this area. What's that?"

Van Statten didn't answer, but Goddard did. "Weapons testing."

"Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone." The Doctor replied, taking my hand again. "Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it."

The other man, the really, really ignorant man folded his arms a little. "I thought you were the great expert, Doctor, you and your daughter. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something."

"What's the nearest town?"

"Salt Lake City."

"Population?"

Even I knew that. "One million."

"All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs."

He stared at us in horror. "But why would it do that?"

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose!" I flinched again at the noise, but I was getting used to the tones now, and it wasn't as bad. None of it had been directed at me, so that was a plus. "The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

A man on the other end gave him a stupid look. "Thank you, Doctor, but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot. Positions!" They all ran into place, behind boxes and we watched Rose and Adam get shouted at for getting in the way before they ran out again. "On my mark. Open fire!"

"We've got vision." Goddard said softly as the screen was filled with the bangs and flashes of light from the bullets.

"It wants us to see." The hail of bullets was having no effect, as the Dalek rose up off the ground, zapping the fire sprinkles on. Once the concrete floor was covered with a layer of water, it fired downwards and electrocuted every wet person on the ground, and it felt like I was being shot too, shaking as the screams hit me, making me hide my face in the Doctor's chest again. "Oh God..."

"Fall back! Fall back!"

The Dalek killed him next and then they all went down. This wasn't right. Just, no, this was horrible. "Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place." No without Rose.

"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out."

"You said we could seal the vault." The Doctor spoke up, stroking my hair softly.

Van Statten nodded, looking a little scared at long last. "It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads."

Goddard shook her head. "There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive."

"We've got emergency power." I muttered, lifting my head. "We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors. But not until Rose is through."

"We'd have to bypass the security codes. That would take a computer genius."

Statten put his hand up. "Good thing you've got me, then."

"You want to help?"

"I don't want to die, Doctor, Jacey." Stop calling me that. "Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me."

And the Goddard spoke up, pointing to the screen. "Sir." It was the Dalek. "I shall speak only to the Doctor and his daughter, Jacey." OK, even a Dalek was calling me it now, great.

"You're going to get rusty." I told him with a thick voice. "Rusty the Dalek."

"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me."

The Doctor stiffened a little bit. "What's your next trick?"

The eye stalk went up and down at that, before it fixed on the camera again. "I have been searching for the Daleks."

"Yeah, we saw. downloading the internet. What did you find?"

"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes."

"And?"

"Nothing." But... It was sad. He, he said no emotions, but I could see the sadness in the words, bringing tears to my eyes. It knew it was alone. "Where shall I get my orders now?"

The Doctor nodded a little. "You're just a soldier without commands."

"Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer." No, please. Why should you do that, you were feeling, you had emotion!

I cleared my throat, trying to stand taller. "What for? What's the point? Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for."

"Then what should I do?"

He raised his own head higher, squeezing my shoulders. "All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself."

"The Daleks must survive!"

"The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don't you just die?" He screamed at it, forgetting that I was right in front of him. I pulled away, shaking my head. "Jace?"

"You would make a good Dalek."

And then the screen went blank.

I took a deep breath, wiping my eyes and keeping them closed so I couldn't see the colours around me. "Seal the Vault."

"I can leech power off the ground defences, feed it to the bulkheads." Van Statten said, still hacking his way through his own system. "God, it's been years since I had to work this fast."

The Doctor spoke to him incredulously, his face probably the same I just couldn't see it. I was done with the colours right now. "Are you enjoying this?"

"Doctor, Jace, she's still down there."

I held my hand out expectantly and the Doctor put his phone in there, already dialling and I put it to my ear. "This isn't the best time."

"Where are you?"

"Level forty nine." She paused. "Jace, are you crying?"

I ignored the question. "You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty six."

"Can't you stop them closing?"

"We can't, the Doctor's the one who's closing them. We can't wait and I can't help you. I just watched them kill everyone in there. Now for God's sake, run. Please, Rose, please!"

"Done it. We've got power to the bulkheads."

"The Dalek's right behind them"

"We're nearly there." Rose panted, nearly there. "Give us two seconds."

"Doctor, I can't sustain the power. The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads."

"Doctor, she's nearly there!"

I opened my eyes to see the colours still all around me, just sitting in the air as the Doctor looked at me. "I'm sorry."

He hit enter, and then the bulkhead started to lower and I was left panicking about whether my only friend could have made it. And then it was closed. "Rose, where are you? Rose, did you make it?"

"Sorry," She breathed. "I was a bit slow." I put it on speaker so the Doctor could hear. "See you, then, Doctor, Jace. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault. And do you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

And then the phone went dead. "I killed her."

"I'm sorry."

"I said I'd protect her. She was only here because of me, just like Jace is, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in it's cell, but you stopped me."

Van Statten raised his voice now, and I was temped to close my eyes again, but why? I needed to get used to this now. "It was the prize of my collection!"

"Your collection?" He asked, shaking his head. "But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Rose? Worth risking this 14 year year old girl? Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater.

The man nodded his head. "Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!"

I growled a little at him and walked forwards, going to hit him again but the Doctor held me back. "You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you. She was nineteen years old."

And then Adam came in and the Doctor dropped me a little, knowing that my anger was dissipating. "You were quick on your feet, leaving Rose behind."

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!"

The screen fizzled back into life, showing Rose and the Dalek. "Open the bulkhead or Rose Tyler dies."

"You're alive!" I breathed, staring at the image of her. "Oh my God I am really not going to survive this if my heart keeps going like this."

That made her laugh a little. "You get used to it. Can't get rid of me."

"We thought you were dead."

"Open the bulkhead!"

Rose shook her head. "Jace, Doctor, don't do it!"

"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love? Your best friend?"

I looked at the Doctor who nodded. "We killed her once. I can't do it again." I flicked the buttons, and the bulkhead rose and they came through.

"What do we do now, you bleeding heart. What the hell do we do?" Van Statten demanded, looking at the pair of us.

Adam spoke up then, and we all stared at him. "Kill it when it gets here."

"All the guns are useless," Goddard reminded him. "And the alien weapons are in the vault."

"Only the catalogued ones."

And then we went into his workshop and the Doctor started sifting through everything while I looked at the small instrument on the floor, picking it up and making a single tune before pocketing it. I felt like I'd need it. Eventually, the Doctor managed to find a weapon he thought would work, and then we went to fine where the Dalek was.

And then we found them and I ran to hug Rose, but the Dalek, or whatever was inside the shell, was reaching out to the sunlight that was shining down on us. "Get out of the way. Rose, Jace, get out of the way now!" The Doctor told us, and I realised that we were in front of it. But this creature... The sun around the tendrils in golden swirls, that was also the feeling of joy in the Dalek.

"No. I won't let you do this. Doctor... I can see emotion."

He shook his head. "That thing killed hundreds of people. Jacey, Jaclyn you watched it."

"It's not the one pointing the gun at us. I have to say, that's a first. After everything."

"I've got to do this." He insisted, faltering at my words, and how soft they were. "I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left."

I shook my own head a little. "You have me, remember? Look at it."

"What's it doing?"

Rose smiled a little. "It's the sunlight, that's all it wants."

"But it can't..."

She smiled more. "It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's been asking about Jace, about the music. It's changing. What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into? Because you've scared Jace." She held me tight, as I looked at him.

"I couldn't. I wasn't. Oh, Rose. They're all dead. Jace, I'm sorry."

The Dalek turned his attention to him now. "Why do we survive?"

"I don't know. Some small part of me is saying it's to save Jace but she wouldn't be in this much danger if I hadn't taken her." He admitted, and I wanted to go over and hug him but I didn't want him to kill the creature.

" I am the last of the Daleks."

I shook my head sadly at the creature. "You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating. That's why you knew about my music."

"Into what?" God, dark yellow in its voice. It was so scared...

"Something new." The Doctor told it. "I'm sorry."

Why was that a bad thing? "Isn't that better?" Rose and I asked.

"Not for a Dalek."

"I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die."

She shook her head in shock. No way in hell. "I can't do that."

"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!" God, it hated the idea of it so much...

"Do it." I told it, barely realising the words came out of my mouth. "Do, it."

The single eye fixed on me. "Are you frightened, Jacey Smith?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am." I took the small device out of my pocket again, running my fingers over it, getting a small tune out.

"So am I. Thank you for the beautiful music, Jacey. Exterminate." I kept playing as the Dalek shut it's eye, backing away once the armour closed again and rose into the air, imploding itself. So I stopped playing, leaving the silence hanging in the air in thick black lines.

 **DW**

"A little piece of home. Better than nothing." The Doctor smiled, rubbing the faded blue wood of the TARDIS.

I took his hand a little, giving it a squeeze. "Is that the end of it, the Time War?"

He nodded at me. "I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?"

"The Dalek survived." Rose reminded him. "Maybe some of your people did too."

The Doctor sighed a little. "I'd know. In here." He tapped my head and then knocked my forehead a little, smiling. "Feels like there's no one."

"Well then, good thing I'm not going anywhere, because I don't have anywhere to go."

He grinned back. "Yeah."

"We'd better get out." Adam shouted, running up to us. "Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed."

"About time."

Adam sighed a little. "I'll have to go back home."

"Better hurry up then." I told him, looking right at him. "Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

Rose then tried something. "Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars."

The Doctor and I scoffed at the same time. "Tell him to go and stand outside, then."

"He's all on his own, Doctor, and he did help." Oh, forget me, thanks. I lived there too, remember.

I folded my arms. "He left you down there."

"So did your dad." He wasn't my dad. He just got me off the street.

This was just confusing him, which was a little fun. "What're you talking about? We've got to leave."

"Plus, he's a bit pretty." The Doctor pointed out.

She pretended to not have seen that. "I hadn't noticed."

"On your own head." He unlocked the doors, then looked back at the pair of them.

Adam was getting very, very confused and it was just a little funny. "What're you doing? She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." We walked into the TARDIS and he was still questioning it. "Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box? Rose?"

He creeped in behind us and the Doctor turned to looked at him. "Let's get one thing straight. Ranking in the TARDIS. I'm at the top, the my daughter Jace, the Rose. Then it's the Spider Rats in the library, the Dove Bats in the roof and the bacteria under the sink. Lastly, it's you. Got that?"

"Y, yes sir..." And then he passed out.

" Loving your boyfriend, Rose."


	5. Bloody Adam

**The Doctor:**

Jace and I had another heart to heart about the whole synaesthesia thing, and she'd admitted that was how she learn so fast. The words were in colour so she didn't have to classify things. Her brain and senses did it for her. I was really getting to know this girl and I really felt like a dad to her. I just didn't think she saw me as a dad yet, more a guardian that would never live up to the man. I hoped one day I did, because I already felt like she was my daughter.

We materialised and stepped out with Rose, leaving Adam in there alone for a moment. "So, it's two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship." I paused, shaking my head a little. "No, wait a minute, space station, and er, go and try that gate over there. Off you go."

Rose stared at me, having again gotten Jace into make up, which looked fine, she just looked better without. As long as she didn't wear too much. "Two hundred thousand?"

I nodded. "Two hundred thousand."

"Right." She opened the door, sticking her head in. "Adam? Out you come."

"Oh, my God." He breathed, staring at the massive space we were now stood in. Jacey's eyes were darting back and forth around, quickly seeing all the pipes in the walls and around us.

She smirked a little at him. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"Where are we?"

"Good question. Let's see." A companion copying me to impress another companion, brilliant. "So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen-" She paused for effect. "Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down. Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!" She lead us through the metal gate to the window I'd seen, and even I was a little taken with the view. "Here we go! And this is. I'll let the Doctor describe it."

Oh, will you now, that's nice, thanks. "The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle."

And then Adam fainted. Again.

"He's your boyfriend." Jace smiled at her cheekily, her hair loosely braided over her shoulder. I did like that, it meant she wasn't so scared she felt she needed to hide behind it.

Rose just kept staring at the view, not rising to it. "Not anymore"

When he woke up, which happened when Jace kicked him in the nuts, we headed out to the central hub space on the floor. "Come on, Adam. Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners."

But then we were shoved out of the way rudely, and there were people opening up food vending stations, serving customers and. This was really, really not right. "Fine cuisine?" Jace questioned. "Eating out of a Chinese takeaways bin at the end of the night smelt better than this." Well, you'd be the one to know, unfortunately.

"My watch must be wrong." I had a look but the infinity fusion battery was still going strong. It wasn't a fault. "No, it's fine. It's weird."

The blonde girl grinned a little. "That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was."

That was a massive insult to me. "My history's perfect."

"Well, obviously not."

And then Adam, of all the stupid stupid apes that could have done it, made a very good point. "They're all human. What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question." I sighed, absently stroking Jace's hair, making her lean back into my hand, smiling a little. She trusted me absolutely, and I loved it. "Actually, that is a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."

He shook his head a little. "No, I'm just a bit time sick."

"No, you just need a bit of grub." I stuck my head around to talk to one of the venders. "Oi, mate - how much is a kronkburger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart." Oh, now that was cheeky. "Now join the queue."

Jace, pulled me back, blinking at the sudden appearance of all the noise. "Money. We need money. Let's use a cashpoint. If there is one, I don't know."

I took her hand, leading her over to a cash point sort of thing as we were told about the Glasgow water riots over the intercom. Sonicking it, Jace smiling, motioning to spirals coming from it and pointing to her blue t-shirt, meaning she saw blue spirals, eventually I got a plastic card that I handed to Adam. "Here you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets. "

"How does it work?"

Some genius he was. "Go and find out. Stop nagging me. The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?" Jace laughed, shaking her head, pretending to be embarrassed. At least I hoped she was pretending. "Stop asking questions, go and do it. Off you go, then. "

"Your first date." Jace grinned, and Rose scoffed, messing up her hair a little as she left, warning her off saying things like that. Sisters, definitely. Once she was gone, she looked up at me, rubbing her eyes a little. "So, what are we investigating?"

Oh, she was getting far too good at this. "Who says I'm investigating anything? Who says I'm not just taking you on a tour?"

"Because you don't know where we are, the times have confused you, and you have your investigating face on."

I stared at her, looking smugly back at me. "I don't have an investigating face. I'm not Sherlock."

"You're very similar people. I got £50 for helping him out once, and he's always tried to make sure I'm OK. But yeah, you both have investigating faces." Oh, all right then.

"I want to know what's going on, so, it's bring your daughter to work day. Come along, Jacey." I lead her over to a pair of smartly dressed women, who were on break by the looks of it. "This is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where we are?"

One of the women scoffed a little at us, not looking impressed. "Floor One Three Nine. Could they write it any bigger?"

Jace gritted her teeth at her voice, and I agreed, it was a little grating. "Floor one three nine of what?"

"Must've been a hell of a party."

The other women spoke up then, and we both looked at her instead. She looked a lot nicer. "You're on Satellite Five."

That really wasn't helping, I'm afraid. "What's Satellite Five."

"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" The first woman asked, and I really didn't like her.

"Look at me. I'm stupid. It's also bring your daughter to work day and I'm showing her around."

Then she narrowed her eyes a little. "Hold on, wait a minute. Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"

"You've got me. Well done. You're too clever for me." I held up the psychic paper and then, pretended to put it into my pocket, but really just gave it to Jace, who then showed it again. "Advanced placement, she's very intelligent." Not really lying.

" We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion." The nicer woman told us. "And I didn't know we had an advanced placement programme."

Oh, well, they did as long as we were here. "It's a new programme."

The first woman was getting a little excited now. "Right, fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor five hundred I'll do anything."

"Why, what happens on Floor five hundred?" Jace asked, hugging her arms around herself. "I haven't been told much yet. First day."

"The walls are made of gold." Well, that sounded like a very expensive decor, good thing they didn't get the taxes to pay it. "So, this is what we do." The woman walked over to a wall monitor. "Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant." Considering he was just a head, I'd love to know he managed that, or if it was just a thing where he got a girl pregnant. Which would also be interesting.

Jace nodded a little, looking at the screen. "I get it. You broadcast the news."

"We are the news." She corrected. "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels. All coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going though us."

That. That was not right. Not at all. The human race got rid of that a long time ago, why did they still have that? That was a horrid bit of tech that shouldn't have ever been in place in the first place. The offered to show us a session of news broadcasting, so we had to go and fetch the children in from play time.

"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" Theyfollowed us into the news room, where 7 people were seated at an octagonal desk, a central chair and we stood to the side, just watching. "Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot,- my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy."

Suki spoke up then, and Jace fixed her eyes on her for a moment, before looking back at Cathica. "Actually, it's the law."

"Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." She settled down into the chair. "And engage safety." The seven held their hands over palm print on the table in front of them making lights start to come on around the room. Cathica clicked her fingers and a portal opened in her forehead. And then the people put their hands down. "And three, two, and spike."

A beam of light shone into her portal, and Jace covered her ears, the noise probably hurting her, so I helped, putting mine over as well, kissing her hair as I explained to the other two. "Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer. My Jacey can hear it all, and see the swirls like the words, so her brain can translate it."

"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius. Like Jace." Rose commented, smiling at the girl who was watching it intently.

I shook my head. "Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it. There's too much. Her head'd blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."

"So, what about all these people round the edge?"

"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels." I explained to them. "Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power." Rose made sure Adam was alright before I told them the tech was wrong. Which meant trouble.

But then Suki pulled her hand away from the console like she'd been shocked, which caused a chain reaction, the beam shutting down and I pulled away from Jace, knowing that she'd want to be able to hear again. "Come off it, Suki." Cathica complained, looking at her. "I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?"

"Sorry. It must've been a glitch." No, something did that to her on purpose. Had to be.

"Oh." And the the walls lit up with the word promotion, the tannoy saying it as well. "Come on. This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name."

"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor five hundred."

Well, that was a turn of events. "I don't believe it. Floor five hundred."

"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you." Cathica demanded, walking angrily towards the other woman. Oh, this wasn't going to be pretty.

She shrugged a little, doing a very good impression of an excited woman. "I don't know. I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes."

Cathica sighed, looking very sulky. Well, she was human. "That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years."

Rose frowned a little. "What's Floor five hundred?"

Jace gave her a long look, her eyes bright and curious. "The walls are made of gold."

We then went to the lift with her, and she hugged Cathica before looking at Jace and I. "Cathica, I'm going to miss you. Floor five hundred, thank you."

"We didn't do anything." Jace laughed, fiddling with the necklace she had, a small key with a little star on it, along with her name. Jaclyn, my darling daughter. From her dad, probably, her mum sounded pretty quiet and submissive.

Suki wouldn't drop it. "Well, you're my lucky charms."

"All right. I'll hug anyone." I hugged her, then put my hand back on Jace's shoulder, knowing she wouldn't hug her.

She flapped her hands a bit as the doors opened. "Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" And then the doors closed.

"Good riddance." Cathica sniffed.

I frowned at the overly ambitious woman, wondering what her problem was. "You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs."

"We won't. Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back.2" We were walking back through the cafeteria, and Jace took my hand again, and I gave it a squeeze.

"Have you ever been up there?"

Cathica shook her head. "I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few. Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?"

No, this was important. "But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" She sat down in the broadcast chair, and I kept playing with her hair, which she didn't mind, resting her head back in mine.

"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here." She sighed, giving up on arguing with us. "Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." And then she realised. "You're not management, are you."

I gave her a sly smile. "At last. She's clever."

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

Jace frowned then, rubbing her wrist a little. "Don't you even ask?"

"Well, why would I?"

"You're a journalist." We reminded her, a fact she seemed to have forgotten. Journalists wanted to know everything, hence why Sarah was such a great friend. "Why's all the crew human?"

She frowned this time. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"There's no aliens on board. Why?"

Cathica sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything."

I gestured to the large area outside, where everyone was human. "Then where are they?"

"I suppose immigration's tightened up." She thought, not really sounding all too bothered. "It's had to, what with all the threats."

"What threats?" Jace asked, looking a little surprised. As was I, there were no real wars in this time, threats were never made.

She shrugged, like it wasn't really her business. "I don't know all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."

This was really not very good. Not good at all. "Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice."

"Doctor, Jace, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."

I shook my head at her, starting to pace a little. "I can see better. This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."

"It's cutting edge."

And that was the biggest problem. They were believing it all. "It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago."

"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked, and she'd been so quiet I'd forgotten she was there.

"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back." I told her, pulling Jacey to her feet and toward the door.

Cathica looked skeptical. "And how would you know?"

"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

She visibly gulped a little. "Ninety one years ago." Bingo.

Then we headed somewhere else, a main frame panel that Jace had seen because all the energy on this floor came from this area. Synaesthesia, nice way of finding electrical panels and people who were lying. Not so nice when you can taste emotion. "We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off."

"Rose, tell her to button it." Jace and I said at the same time, while I was trying to unlock the door.

"You can't just vandalise the place. Someone's going to notice!" The doors opened then, and Jace and I started digging through, looking for things that would give us answers. "This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work."

Jace waved her off, not even looking at her. "Go on, then. See you!"

She tried to, and then sighed, turning back at us. "I can't just leave you, can I!"

"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down." Rose told her, just stood back watching Jace and i work. "It's boiling. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?"

Cathica shrugged. "I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine. I don't know."

"Exactly." I told her, turning back to look at them as the other girl kept working. "I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question. Why is it so hot?"

She stared at me incredulously. "One minutes you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating"

"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." And then Jace pulled me back in as the monitor she was holding came up with a schematic on it. "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."

"This is ridiculous." Cathica sighed, shaking her head. "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?"

I would have thought that was obvious, but this woman was really a bit dim. "But there's something wrong."

"I suppose." She'd seen it too, that was good. I wasn't imagining things again.

Rose leaned to have a look but didn't see it. "Why, what is it?"

"The ventilation system." She explained. "Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channelling massive amounts of heat down."

Jacey nodded. "All the way from the top."

"Floor five hundred."

I really wanted to head up there now, find out about what was happening. "Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party." Rose smiled as Jace got to her feet, twirling her around a little. "It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?"

Cathica shook her head. "You can't. You need a key."

"Keys are just codes, and we've got the codes right here." She smiled, taking the monitor back. "Never doubt the ability to memorise numbers by smells. Here we go. Override two one five point nine." The monitor then showed me 215.9976/31.

The working woman stared at it. "How come it's given you the code?"

"Someone up there likes is."

The lift opened and we turned back to Cathica who was looking around, trying not to get see with us. "Come on. Come with us."

"No way."

"Bye!" Jace and I waved cheerily.

"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." And then she finally left.

We all got into the lift and Jace took her hair out, the loose curls having turned into tighter ones from the plait, which made her look a lot older, and I wasn't sure I liked it so I messed it up a little, making her pout, scrunching up her nose and looking about 5. That was better. "That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you two and me."

"Yeah." They both smiled. "Good." They agreed again and the doors silently slid open, showing a very dark, cold area with ice on the walls. "The walls are not made of gold. You should go back downstairs. Rose, you should protect Jace there."

"Tough."

Then we found someone in the middle of a bank of computers, all of them silently working. "I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?" Because a very clever man made me disappear.

"Suki." Rose ran over to the girl and shook her shoulder. "Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki?" There was no reply and she looked over at the man with a beard made of frost. I wondered if his name was Jack... "What have you done to her?"

I didn't even look over at her, just keeping Jacey looking forward. "I think she's dead."

"She's working."

"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets. The chips are active, they give off a frequency that looks like snow flakes. Guess we know who stole the air con." Jace muttered, and she was shivering now, her small frame really not built to be in cold places. Neither was I, I was cold blooded.

The man, who for now I was calling Jack for obvious reasons, grinned at her. "Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you. Come on." Suki grabbed Rose and Jace and I were taken by other Zombies, holding us in place.

Well, we weren't leaving just yet. "Tell me who you are. "

"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I."

He smiled more. "Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."

Jace frowned, looking for another man or woman who wasn't a zombie. "And who's that?"

"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." There was a growling snarl from above and the Editor Jack sighed, translating. I'd already done so, thank you telepathic circuit. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client."

A giant lump was hanging from the ceiling, with a very nasty set of teeth in a mouth on the end of a pseudopod. That, that was just a little but like an evil clitoris, and I should probably not say that. "What is that?" Rose asked, staring in horror.

Jace was just staring at it in disgust. "You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?"

"That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max." Well, that was a hell of a name, almost as bad as some of the Gallifreyan titles.

We were then put into hefty manacles and he kept talking, loving the sound of his own voice. How was he not frozen? "Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."

"So all the people on Earth are like, slaves." Rose summarised. Very well spotted, because they really were.

Jack looked a little sly now, and smug. "Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

There wasn't a debate at all about that. "Yes."

"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"

Jace nodded. "Yes. I've been a slave near enough, I've got the scars to prove it. You're doing it worse, enslaving their minds."

The Editor pouted a little. "You're no fun."

"Let her out of those manacles. You'll find out how much fun she is. mate." Rose told him, and I definitely agreed with that. There was a reason she survived on the streets.

"Oh, she's tough, isn't she." He smiled patting Jace's cheek, pulling back as she tried to bite him. "But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

Rose got his attention away from her then, and I saw Jace close her eyes, probably hating the snow like visions from the zombies. "You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must have noticed."

He nodded a little. "From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it. Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

This man was just that cocky that he didn't realise Cathica had followed us up, meaning she was hearing every word of this. And we needed her to get back out with what she knew, so we needed to distract Jack Frost here. "What about you?" Rose asked him. "You're not a Jagrabelly "

"Jagrafess."

"Jagrafess." She corrected. "You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."

The man shrugged a little. "Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."

Jace sighed a little. "But you couldn't have done this all on your own."

"No." He agreed. "I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."

"No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?" I asked, knowing that this thing was probably the cause of all the heat which was why it needed to be channelled downwards.

"Three thousand years."

Jace whistled. "That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot, to my knowledge. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system. That's worse than a 90 year old taking constant heart replacements when he's lived his life."

"But that's why you're so dangerous, you and your friend." Mr Frosty said solemnly. "Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" He snapped his fingers and energy surged through the manacles, making Jace cry out, sobbing a little.

I ignored mine, trying to break the circuit to her. "Leave her alone. I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter, Jace, and she's Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering."

"Tell me who you are!"

"I just said!"

"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-" He cut out as the Jagrafess growled, and I stiffened. "Time Lord."

God, how the hell did they reach the correct conclusion? "What?"

"Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine, his adopted daughter with colourful sounds and emotions. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago."

I gritted my teeth, staring dead eyed at him. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Time travel"

This was getting ridiculous. How the hell did they know so much? "Someone's been telling you lies."

"Young master Adam Mitchell?" He called up an image of Adam in a broadcast chair, with a bloody hole in his forehead. This was ridiculous.

"Oh, my God. His head!" Rose breathed, looking at him in horror.

Jace was staring too, seeing something i couldn't. "What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything. They're taking all his knowledge."

The Editor nodded his agreement. "And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in you S. TARDIS."

"Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first."

His smile got very smug as the TARDIS key rose from Adam's pocket. "Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key."

I glared at Rose for a moment. "You and your boyfriends!"

"Today, we are the headlines." The man was laughing, and Jace winced at the sound. "We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."

"And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold."

There was a pause as we watched Cathica leave, before the things around us started going haywire. "What's happening? Someone's disengaged the safety. Who's that?"

He called the image up on the holo-monitor, replacing my newest enemy with Cathica, my new best friend. "It's Cathica."

"And she's thinking. She's using what she knows." Jace grinned, her eyes suddenly brighter again.

"Everything I told her about Satellite Five." I agreed, watching the icicles starting to melt. "The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that. It's getting hot." And then the console exploded and the dead operators collapsed. Only Rose got free though. "She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano."

The Editor took Suki's seat and tried to start fixing thing. "What do I do?" Rose asked me, taking the sonic from my pocket. How long had she been with me?

"Flick the switch and get Jace out first!" I looked over at the Editor as she got to work, freeing her quickly and moving onto mine. "Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines"

And then we ran out, going to the broadcast as chunks of ice were falling from the ceiling. Just as we heard the Jagrafess explode, I closed Cathica's portal. Another job well done. Until I got my hands on Adam, anyway.

 **DW**

"We're just going to go. I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage." I told Cathica as everyone was helping the wounded. Jace was still by my side, shivering in my leather jacket. She was a little ice pop.

The journalist looked horrified at the idea. "You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me."

"Oh they might start believing a lot of things now." I smiled, wrapping my arm around my little Jace. "The human race should accelerate. All back to normal."

She glanced at Adam. "What about your friend?"

Oh, don't even go there. He's lucky I'm not leaving him here. "He's not my friend.

"Now, don't-" Rose tried, but I shot her a small look. She was the one who gave him the phone and the TARDIS key. I didn't blame her, but she should have waited to trust him with those.

Adam then tried to defend himself. Badly. "I'm all right now. Much better. And I've got the key. Look, it's. It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge." That was it, he was now lucky he wasn't being thrown into a sun.

Jace kicked him through the doors and then I landed us at his house, and he looked out in relief. "It's my house. I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to kick me out of an airlock."

"Is there something else you want to tell us?" Jace asked him, staring at his forehead. She could see the little chips, I knew that much. Not sure what they would manifest as though.

He blinked at the tiny girl. "No. What do you mean?"

I picked up the answering machine. "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." So I sonicked the phone, knowing that it would explode. Served him right, he was lucky I was only destroying the phone. "That's it, then. See you. "

"How do you mean, see you?" Adam asked as I went to go back into the TARDIS and I turned to look back at him.

To be honest I thought it was fairly obvious. "As in goodbye."

"But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens." Oh, that reminded me.

"What, like this?" I clicked my fingers, making him get frustrated. Jace and I kept doing it until Rose told us off. Spoil sport. Until she did it herself. Brilliant. "The whole of history could have changed because of you."

He looked at me reproachfully. "I just wanted to help."

Jace shook her head at him. "You were helping yourself. I've met people like you my whole life, you think you're better because you're smart. But really, you're a dick."

"Language, Jaclyn."

She sighed, folding her arms. "You're a penis." Well, it was a little better. And also true.

"And I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."

Oh, here was the big kicker. "Yes we can. 'Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen. Good luck." I grinned, knowing that he would end up struggling and then just working at burger king or mcdonalds his whole life.

"But I want to come with you."

"I only take the best. I have my lovely Jacey, and I've got Rose." I pulled her into the TARDIS as his mum came in, and then waited for Rose. Finally, some peace and quiet. For however long that lasted.


	6. Phoenix

**Jace:**

 _"Aichoo!"_ OK, that was the 5th sneeze in 2 minutes, what was going on?

I followed the sound to the console room, finding the Doctor trying to do something on the console, but he kept having to turn away to sneeze or cough. His eyes were puffy and red rimmed, his nose making him look like Rudolph, and overall, he just screamed sick. "Jace, morning. How'd you sleep?"

"I slept alright, yeah" I tried to say, but I got interrupted by a long stream of sneezes from him. "I'm good, but you're sick, Doctor."

He shook his head, still moving around the console, though his movements were sloppy and miscalculated. "I don't get sick, my Jacey, I'm alien, remember? Besides, the only place we've been recently is Earth, and I really don't catch anything from Earth." The boat had set sail on that one, he definitely had a cold, his voice was all thick and sounded like he had cotton wool in there.

"Where's that temperature thingie..." I muttered, digging through a tool box that had everything in there from diabetes needles, to sewing needles, to some paintbrushes. I took out the thermometer and walked over to him, when he wasn't looking sticking it in his ear. "OK... What? That can't be right, it says you're normal temperature, a little high but its warm in here. 37.8."

But apparently this wasn't good. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me, that high?" And then he went on to explain to me how his people, Time Lords, or the soldiers were just Gallifreyans technically, had a much lower body temperature because of the dual hearts they had, as well as their respiratory bypass system, that means they can survive long period of time without breathing.

So when his normally 15 degree blood temperature was really well over doubled, that wasn't a good thing. "You know what this means, right?" I asked him, flinching at the dark green pattern that came around me as he blew his nose, the noise alone offensive, but the pattern hurting my eyes. "You need to go to bed, with no access to the console room or anything, and then you're just going to sleep."

"Jace, I can handle having a cold or flu or whatever this is, OK? Anyway, I'm not letting you just wander the TARDIS on your own, you'll get lost."

Oh, thanks for that, not like I could follow all of the pipes in the walls to the console room and back. "I'll be fine, I've got Rose. She knows her way around here, so you, are going to bed, Doctor Jace's orders." I smiled, making him put the sonic down and then pulling him towards the inner TARDIS, where Rose was now coming from. "He's sick, help me get him to bed."

"I am not sick, Jace!" He tried, but broke off, coughing like mad and then sneezing in quick succession. 8 times. OK, maybe I am a little, but it's just a cold."

"That is more than a cold, Doctor" Rose told him, getting his other arm and then helping me drag him to the first bedroom we could, mostly because we didn't know which room was his in the TARDIS, and forced him to take the leather jacket off and get into the bed. "This is flu, Shareen had it the same a few years back, ended in her loosing 4 stone because she couldn't keep anything down."

He just grunted, pulling the cushions over his head. We turned off the lights for him, and then left the room, giggling as he quickly started snoring like a pig. "So, what are we going to do, Jacey Jay? Not like we can fly the TARDIS or anything."

I giggled, and grabbed her hand, running back to the console room and then flipped a switch, looking at the rest of it, looking for the colours that each switch had, something that I seen all the time. All the time, I could see why the Doctor went for each switch, because on some psychic level he could see what I could, only with the TARDIS.

Following where she told me to go, a small blipping sound was then coming from the little red dot. "I have no clue what the TARDIS just told me to do, but that sound is very irritating. How do we make it stop?"

Rose moved the monitor around and saw swirly things. "it's... A distress signal. Follow the rest of things and we'll be taken to the source. Either that or it's the doorbell for pizza." Oh, that was similar. But I did as she said, following what the TARDIS told me, and we ended up landing somewhere, the blip getting louder and more urgent, little red bubbles flying with each sound. "OK, and now what do we do? We can't really go out there without the Doctor, Jace."

"Where's your adventurer spirit, Rose?" I smiled, grabbing my cardigan, the Doctor's sonic, and going over to the door. "I'm a teenager, I'm supposed to rebel, anyway. Not like he's my dad, anyway."

I knew he was trying hard to be, I was just struggling to come to the realisation that one day he wouldn't either turn on me or just be gone. Because I'd already lost enough in my life, I couldn't lose another dad or sister, and slowly, very slowly, that was what Rose and the Doctor were becoming to me.

"Jace, you know that he wants to be a dad to you, right?" Rose asked softly, taking my hand as I paused by the door. "He feels so protective over you, when he thought he lost you to the Reapers a few days ago he was so scared, and I have never seen him like that."

Nodding, I turned the latch. "I know. I could see it on his face when I came back. Come on, the sonic is connecting to the source, I can see the link, its all blue and red swirls. It's very pretty actually, a little like fire."

She left it, but I could see that Rose wanted to talk more about it. It took a while of walking through what seemed to be a type of forest, with dark purple trees that had amber leaves that let moonlight go right through them, making the light silver grass look like it was on fire at times. it felt like Rose was finally able to see the colours in my head, unless I was seeing the fact that everything on this planet was linked. All the living creatures had a thin red cord between them, like a string telephone, and I could just hear the whispers of the trees and the plants. This was amazing.

"Some planet, there's no one here." Rose muttered, as we found a clearing. "It must be an old signal and someone else found the person."

We went to head back, but I caught a glimpse of something dark blue and red in the trees behind us, making me turn back. "Hello? Is there someone here?"

"Jace, there's no one." But I didn't believe that. There was a trail of the rest of the signal down the path at the other end and I started off at a sprint behind it, hoping to find whoever it was who sent out the distress signal.

I kept running, Rose trying to keep up, but I knew she was unlikely to, considering that I'd been running for years now. But as I went to jump a fallen tree, something slammed into me, knocking me to the ground and we rolled down the side of a small bank.

When we eventually stopped, I sat up quickly, getting ready to run if it was someone trying to hurt me, but paused when I saw a blue boy around my age getting to his feet at the same time. He was blue, like, TARDIS blue, and had blood red hair combed back off his face. He had no clothes on, but he had scales that covered his form, and there was nothing, uh, intimate on show. And his eyes were pure molten gold.

"My apologies, Miss, but you mustn't leave the tree lines." He told me, with a polite English accent, more English than me even. "There are creatures beyond it who believe that we are filth. That they deserve to start war on anything different."

I stood up straight, seeing that this was the guy with the blue and red light coming from him, and saw that it was a small little wrist watch thing. "Thank you. Our ship registered a distress signal, and we came to find the source. I'm fairly certain that it's your little watch."

"Y, you can see the colours? You have the sight?" What was he talking about, the sight?

"I have a condition called Synaesthesia. It causes my brain to get my senses confused and that means I see sounds, taste sights and sounds, and I can see electrical and psychic connections. Like the one from this sonic device and your watch thing."

His face frowned a little. "Synaesthesia. I have not heard of it, but from my planet, being able to see sounds and the rest of what you said was a rarity and was considered a great honour. My name is Phoenix, and I am the last of my kind. I sent out a distress signal to the Time Lords, and at last they have found me."

Time Lords? Oh, shit. "I, I'm not a Time Lord, Phoenix. My name is Jace, and I'm human, but my uh, my guardian is a Time Lord."

"Guardian? You have no parents of your own?"

I shook my head. "No, I lost my family in a car accident when I was younger. The Doctor took me in a few months ago, and he's like a second dad at times."

"I'm sorry. losing your family is not a nice experience. I know this myself." He looked pained for a moment, and my heart went out to him. He lost his entire race, just as the Doctor did, and I just lost a few of them. He lost a great deal more than I did. But then he heard something I couldn't see and pulled me down again. "Shh, there is someone coming."

Looking up the hill, I saw that it was only Rose, calling out for me, and went to get her attention before Phoenix put his hand over my mouth. Two small forms reached over the log and pulled her over as she screamed and tried to fight. "Rose!" I squealed, trying to get free of Phoenix's grip, but he was strong, holding me to his muscular chest.

"Your friend will not be harmed, not unless we attempt a bad rescue, Jace. We must find your guardian, this Doctor. He can help us, Time Lords are masters of science and Time." He whispered in my ear as Rose's screams faded out of earshot, but I could still see the jagged yellow lines of her fear. "Where is he?"

Fumbling in my pocket, I pulled out Rose's phone, because she lent it to me after me getting separated from them a few weeks back. I quickly dialed the Doctor, who took a moment to answer, and sounded like he'd just been sick. "Jace, I'm sick, but I don't think I'm contagious. You don't have to call me to get my attention."

"Please, please don't get mad yet, but I flew the TARDIS to follow a distress signal." Pause to listen to him take three deep breaths and grunt to tell me to continue. "And I found the source, but Rose got taken by something, and I don't know what to do, please, please, tell me how to get her back."

I was close to tears now, and Phoenix hugged me and his hot skin felt nice against mine. "Oh, Jacey... Right, the person you found, what have they said so far because-" pause to cough, "that could be important."

Sniffing a little, I pulled back and put the phone on speaker. "Doctor, this is Phoenix, and he said his distress signal was keyed specifically for a Time Lord to find."

"Hello, Mr Doctor. I am sorry if Jace did something she was not supposed to in coming to my aid. I have spent many months here alone, and I am grateful for her." OK, this was so weird now. "The planet I am stranded on is called Itras. It is in the-"

"Pettingard system, I know, Phoenix. If the year is the one I think it is, it means that there are Sontarans there, and that is not a good thing. If they have Rose, they'll either hold her-" Insert sneeze here. "as a prisoner of war, or dissect her to-" Insert second sneeze. "Find out the species weaknesses."

That did not sound good. "So what do we do, there has to be something. We need to get Rose back."

"Jacey, calm down, love. I know, OK? Give me a m, m, min... aichoo! Minute. I'll be right there to help you." There was a pause and more coughing, before I spoke.

"No, you're too sick to leave the TARDIS. You stay there and we'll come to you." I told him, wiping my eyes and grabbing Phoenix's hand. "Just wait for us in the console room, OK?"

"Jace, my Jacey you be careful. With the ability to see sounds, the Sontarans would be unstoppable. They wouldn't need sonar or anything." The Doctor told me, and I took a deep breath.

Of course. There were some geneticists who believed that Synaesthesia was an evolution and one day all humans would have it. The entire world could see how I saw. I wondered if that would make it any less special, seeing nature's connections.

"I will make sure she is safe, Mr Doctor. I promise." Phoenix told him, but I trailed off, looking up the hill and seeing more of the Sontarans or whatever they were looking around.

I took his arm and started off at sprint so that we weren't caught, the Doctor still on loud speaker as we ran. "Jace? Jaclyn, where are you?! Jaclyn what the hell is going on?!"

"We're trying to get away from them. okay? Happy with that?" I panted, skidding as more were coming towards us. "Shit. Doctor, we're trapped."

"WHAT?! Jace, Jaclyn you get the hell out of there, now! Back to the TARDIS."

It was too late. The others had seen us and now we're closing in. "Doctor I'm sorry. Thank you for giving me the best here months of my life. See you in hell."

I hung up just as they surrounded us. "Hold still. You will be taken for glory of Sontar. Resistance is futile."


	7. Genetics

**The Doctor:**

"Jace!" I coughed, hearing her on the phone and then it cut out. Stupid human bacteria! "Jaclyn! Come on, Jacey!"

And then her voice came back out of breath, and like she was running. "Still here. Turns out they believe this phone is a bomb. Managed to get free." Thank God. "I don't know what to do, how are we going to get Rose back, Doctor?"

"Just keep calm, love. We'll get her back. She's not supposed to be on this planet and they'll want to keep her alive to see if there are other people like her here. Like you. So you need to come back here and let me deal with this." Except I then had a sneezing fit, followed by a moment of dizziness so bad I had to sit down, or fall down.

"No, you need to stay in bed. Open a video link with my phone. We'll be your eyes and you guide us." That wasn't the worst plan available. So I did so, and she put it in her top pocket, so I could still see it. "How's that?"

I approved. "Good, but you can't walk around with me on speaker. I'm sending something through VIA teleport, risky, but hopefully it'll work." I fumbled with the console, pausing to blow my nose, before sending two little bits of tech through. Earpieces, small enough to hide inside your ear, and it wouldn't mess with my Jace's synaesthesia. "Got them?"

"Got them. Nice and easy, so you're off speaker and we can talk to you." She turned to Phoenix, who was a very familiar race. A race that died in the conflict of the Time War, so how was he here? "Phee, what way is best to get Rose back, where's their base of operations." Oh, she was learning quick.

The blue boy pointed to the edge of the forest and it made sense. Sontarans hated forests, too many places their prime enemy, the Rutans, could hide. "They have taken over the biggest city. Many inhabitants have been either killed or enslaved."

Jace flinched a little. "Well then, I guess it's time to start a revolution." That's my girl.

 **DW**

They kept walking for a while, towards the main town, until they hid under a rock, the sun starting to set. It wouldn't do for them to be caught without anything. But luckily I could charge Jace's phone from the TARDIS, and I got to keep them in a dim light as they slept, Jace having nightmares during the night, but I managed to calm her, telling her stories to get through it.

She was the first to wake up, meaning I had a chat with her about what to do when they eventually got to where they were keeping Rose. Though Phoenix himself woke up in the end and we got moving again.

Well, they were moving, I was sat in the console room nursing a cup of tea and wrapped in a bundle of blankets, but hey. This cold was horrible.

The city itself was small compared to London, but it was more high tech. Hover cars and other things were around, and the buildings were more of an organic composition, meaning if there was an Earthquake, they'd move with it and nothing would collapse. Much smarter than the humans.

"Jacey, theres a hiding spot that should lead to the sewers just below you." She spotted the man hold. "That's it love. Beware of the rats, they are slightly poisonous."

She sighed at that. "Good to know, Doc. Good to know. " And then we were in the dark, being lit up by the light of Rose's old phone, which really needed upgrading. Maybe I should get her a Samsung or a Sony from the future. "Where to now, Doctor?"

"Up ahead. There should be a way into the Prison Camp. I'm picking up Rose's signal from there, she still has some form of tech on her, maybe your little instrument." I explained, thinking of how well she played it already. "Either way, you're heading for a ladder leading to a green grate."

Jace lead the way, tracing her finger lightly over the wall, probably seeing something we couldn't, electrical wires or something. "There's a fuel line right through here. One spark and everywhere this tunnel lead would go up."a

Oh, she was definitely picking up a lot of my skills. Knowing when things would blow up. "So don't touch it then, Jaclyn. Come on, Rose is at risk, and so are you."

She then mimicked me, but got moving. Oh, the joys of raising a teenager who already knows she can live alone. Jace really needed a mother figure, so maybe a visit to Jackie would be good. I was proving to be a push over dad. "Right, Doctor, we are in." Phoenix told me, easily pulling Jace out of the grate after himself. They were an abnormally strong race, Mystiqians. "Which way do we go from here?"

"Don't worry, I can see music. The music from my little gadget. Doctor, any danger in this direction?"

"No, but go careful, Jace." I replied, keeping a close eye on everything ahead. They reached a door, which she opened with my sonic, and they were in a holding cell area, with a very familiar pink and yellow girl.

"Jace!" Rose cried, running the edge. "Jace, what the hell are you doing here, where's the Doctor?!" I told her to put me on speaker, and I filled her in. "Right, well, who's Blue Boy then?"

Phoenix bowed lightly to her. "Phoenix Armatara. I'm a Mystiqan, from the constellation Kasterborous, similar to that of your friend the Doctor. There is a girl here, her name is Amara. Please, do you know where she is?"

Wait. Amara. And his name was Phoenix... Crap, Princess Amara of the Itrans, marries a blue man from a planet lost in the Time War. Phoenix and Amara were the start of a whole new species! We needed to get them out, and fast. This whole area was changeable, in flux. "They took a girl they called Princess to a chamber, could that be her?"

His eyes widened and he set off at a sprint before anyone could realise, and Jace was first to follow after freeing her friend. "Doctor, what can we do to get everyone out and to stop the Sontarans?" Rose asked me, as I teleported a little comms thingie to her as well. "Because they said there name a lot. Glory of the Sontarans, the Sontaran Army, The War between the Sontarans and the Rutans." Well, this planet was going to be in the line of fire in the next few years, it was in the middle of the conflict, but no one died because of the Blue Kings medical knowledge.

"You need to keep that blue boy alive, girls. And get the Princess safe. They're a key part of this planets future, and lives are at stake." They grumbled about how was that all, save the planet now, free the prisoners, stop the Sontarans, and keep those two alive. "Girls, whose idea was it to not wait until I woke up and got better?" I ended up sneezing to prove my point and they sighed.

"Sorry, Doctor."

"Yeah, you'd better be."

They caught up with Phoenix as he was breaking into a computer panel, hotwiring the door mechanism. "Right, we go in, Jace is the smallest so she goes first as she can't be seen." Oh, I was not happy but he was right. "Then she leads us through to where Amara is, and while Rose and I take them out through their weak point at the back of the neck, she unties them."

"I'm good with that. Rose, in future, I'm listening to you and waiting until the Doctor's better." Hallelujah. "Here, let me try with that, I can see how things are connected." She got it open in seconds, her hands moving fast. It was very strange, I felt a little like Alfred from Batman sat here in the TARDIS, guiding them through everything. I probably had the deep voice too, my nose was still bunged up.

Jace luckily followed the plan, and went first, the rest of them going and whacking the two guards in the probic vent as the ties were undone on Amara. Who thanked her before running and hugging Phoenix. Both 16, and they'd be together forever. "Oh, Phee... I know, you told me to get out, but I couldn't leave Mama, she's too frail to run herself."

Rose and Jace were both staring at her. Her skin was the colour of mahogany, with pure silver veins running through it, which were her life blood, as she was a living plant, similar to Jabe. Except these ones weren't as flammable. Her hair, which was a dark jade, was up around her head in a crown, though a lot of it was trying to escape in whispy curls. She was beautiful, with bright emerald eyes.

"Oh, I knew that, Mara. I just hoped that you and her Majesty would be able to escape." He smiled, stroking her hair, taking it out so in fell in tight ringlets around her face, reaching down to her hips. "I'm just so glad that you're safe..." I knew that look, it was just as I had looked at my own wife, how I would still look at her had she not died.

The now four of them tied up the Sontarans, in a way they couldn't break, seeing as they were stupidly strong potatoes, and then started back to the sewers, but Amara stopped at another long line of prison doors. "We can't just leave them. There must be something we can do, surely?"

Forever the time to think of others, I liked her. "We can get them out carefully and take the sewers back to the forest. I hope, anyway. Once there, the city is evacuated and I can set a detonation of the fuel lines. The city will go up, but it''ll give the Sontarans a chance to teleport out before getting barbecued. As well as the fact I can disable their ships weapons."

"But what if the Sontarans don't make it to their ship?" Jace and Amara asked together, and looked away awkwardly. They were similar people, really, when it came to personality.

"They will, trust me. Now hurry up and get everyone out, Princess, Jacey." I told them, and then proceeded to start hacking the pipelines. Except I couldn't trigger the shut off valve that lead to the forest, where everyone would be going, was already going, more than half the prisoners now free. They'd notice soon. "One of you needs to follow the pipes back to the source and turn it off at valve number 9."

Rose spoke up. "I'll do it, Jace, you get back to the TARDIS where its safe. What way, Doctor?"

That was the problem. "There's no map. I don't know where the source is, just that the pipes cover the entire city, leading into the forest. you'd need to be able to follow the pipes back, but they're under 3 inches of concrete, you can't see them or know the direction the fuel is flowing."

"I can see it."

"Jace, not a chance. I need to blow it as soon as possible, you'd be at risk."

She took, the phone and held it so I could see her face, tear tracked still, as well as a little grimy after spending the night in the woods. "You were going to let Rose do it and there's only a few years difference, Doctor."

"There's 5 years and she is faster. you point her in the right direction and she can do it." Her eyes weren't happy, and they also weren't budging. "Jaclyn Monroe, you will do as you are told!"

Jace narrowed her big blue eyes at me. "You're not my dad! No matter how hard you're trying, you will never be my dad and you can't tell me what to do!"

That hit home, it really did. I knew Jace wasn't really my daughter, that I'd just adopted her, but in the few months I'd been looking after her, I'd found myself really wanting to be her dad, but I knew she would never accept me, not after her real dad had been so good to her. I wouldn't change that for her though, it wasn't right. I wouldn't make her call me dad, or be my daughter, just tidy her room, which was immaculate anyway, do the dishes every other night, taking turns with Rose, and do a bit of the laundry.

But her throwing that back in my face in the worst way possible, that hurt. "Fine, then you're going back to Earth and staying with Mickey or Jackie, whichever one will have you!" I didn't mean to say it, it was just something that happened.

Though the words were now said, and I saw the hurt that replaced the anger in her eyes, but she quickly masked the tears. "Then I guess this is my last adventure and I'm damn sure making the most of it!" And with that she started off running, and I told the others to keep getting the prisoners out.

She kept running, stupidly fast, but she eventually found the switches in the sewers, finding the right one for what we needed. I could hear she was crying, but I knew that whatever I said right now was just going to make it worse. I wouldn't send her home, at least not if she didn't want to go. Which she might, now that I'd shouted at her.

But the Sontarans were onto us now, and the alarms were going up top. "Jacey, you need to run, now!" I told her, trying to get my teleport up enough to get her out because the TARDIS had automatically started the detonation in the fuel lines, and she wasn't fast enough. No one would be.

"Jace, take a right, there's a short cut. You need to get there as fast as possible."

The little street girl growled softly. "What do you think I'm trying to do, idiot?! I can't keep going, there's Sontarans ahead. I need to double back on myself."

"No, you can't there are more coming up behind you. There's a ladder to the side of you, climb up and wait there, I've nearly got the teleport working." I told her, typing like mad on the keyboard, the TARDIS working with me for once. She loved her teenage friend. "Jace, get up there, please!"

She listened, luckily, and scrambled up, finding herself in a genetics lab. "OK, you'd better hurry up, I am not being murdered by a potato." Yeah, yeah, everyone said that. But she got bored, and then played with some of the instruments, getting her finger accidentally pricked by something. And then the rest of the system booted up.

"Analysing. Name: Jaclyn Allison Monroe-Smith, age, 14. Planet of Origin, Earth. Analysing species."

It took a while, but the voice had been loud, meaning the Sontarans were on to her. But the teleport worked just as they got through, and Jace grabbed the bit of paper that printed with her genes. And she landed right on my lap, the co ordinates a little off. She didn't fight, was just staring at the card. "Jace? Jacey, what's wrong?"

"Look..." She breathed, pointing to the paper.

 _Name: Jaclyn Allison Monroe-Smith_

 _Age: 14, born 1991_

 _Planet of Origin: Earth, 20th Century._

Species: Human 43% Time Lord 57%

What?

Oh you had to be kidding me. How was Jace more than half Time Lord? She was human, plain and simple, but how was this registering her as something else? Something that was so dear yet so far from my hearts?

Jace wasn't human, at least not much. And who was her Time Lord parent?

"Jace, tell me your parents names, now."

"Harry Monroe and Lucie Miller."

I did a quick scan. "Harry Monroe only came into your mothers life when you were around 9 months old, Jace. And from this picture... I knew Luce. I definitely knew Lucie." I gulped, but when I looked, she was gone. I just saw her long ash hair running down the corridor. If she was actually my daughter...

There were only two possibilities. Me, or Alex, my great grandson. Who was barely Time Lord.

 ** _Heyyy, lemme know what you think of my bomb shell. It'll go more in depth with that as we go, but it will be fully found out in S3, if I get that far. Can I also have a review on what you think of my new cover, that I somehow made? Thank you my lovelies, Izzi xxx_**


	8. Empty

**Jace:**

The TARDIS was jolting around like mad, and I ended up going to the console room because of the beeping that for some reason was purple, well, mauve, instead of red as it usually was. I hadn't been back in here since I'd found out I was part, uh, mostly, Time Lord. "What's the emergency?"

The Doctor looked at me, with an even softer look than normal. "It's mauve."

"I can see that, I'm the one who see's sound, remember? Why is it mauve?"

"The universally recognised colour for danger."

Huh, cool. But Rose was confused. "What happened to red?"

He gave her a wry smile. "That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing. It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go."

"And that's safe, is it?" I asked him, arms folded in skepticism.

"Totally." And then the TARDIS console went Bang! "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there. No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"What exactly is this thing?"

My potential birth father shrugged. "No idea."

Oh, that sounded good. "Then why are we chasing it?"

"It's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the centre of London." And then we materialised and I went out the TARDIS first, not wanting to be close to him just yet. I knew we had to talk about the fact he knew my mum, in that way, and everything was pointing towards my dad not being my real dad, but I wasn't ready for that yet. "Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth? "

"Five days?" Rose suggested, walking closer to me to make sure I was OK. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

He sighed. "Of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow. Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."

That didn't sound right. "A month? We were right behind it."

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place." He reminded me, going to walk closer, but I stepped back again. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive? Scrap that, I know you'd say yes." Oh, I already knew I could.

"Yeah. How much is a little?"

"A bit."

Seriously? "Is that exactly a bit?"

"Ish."

Rose interrupted then, trying to clear the air. I wonder if she knew why it was awkward between us. "What's the plan, then? Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?"

It was my turn to scoff. "Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. We're going to ask." He took out his psychic paper and showed it to us. "Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids."

"It's psychic paper. It tells you"

We both interrupted. "Whatever you want it to tell us, we remember."

"Sorry." He said that mainly looking at me and I hugged my arms around myself, looking at the delivery door.

"Not very Spock, is it, just asking."

The door was quiet, but I could see the distant waves of music coming towards me, jazz, and it was swirling blue and green. "Door, music, people. What do you think?"

"I think you should do a scan for alien tech." Rose told him, and looked at the Doctor. "Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you?"

He went with my plan though, and opened the door with the sonic screwdriver, and looked at Rose's Union Flag top. "Are you sure about that t-shirt?"

"Too early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin." It was a bit gaudy.

"Come on if you're coming. It won't take a minute." I smiled, going in before the Doctor could realise, but he followed quickly.

"Jacey-"

I shook my head. "Shut up. Not in the mood."

But he grabbed my hand and pulled me back, hugging me. I wanted to fight, but I really needed the hug, so just let it happen. "I know. I know you don't want to talk, and I know I can never replace your dad in my heart, but Jace... I'm always here for you, and I will never send you home, because the TARDIS is your home."

"I'm part Time Lord, Doctor. Why am I part Time Lord?" I asked him softly, my face in his chest, and his soft jumper felt like home to me. "I'm human, I've always been human..."

The Doctor rocked me gently, stroking my hair. "I know, I know it's hard, but don't you see? Your mother at least was human, but your father was Time Lord. And... It's likely that Time Lord was me."

Would it really be so bad if he was my biological father? My dad, my real dad, Harry, he was gone now anyway and the Doctor had been so good to me, a real, proper dad figure. "C, can we talk about this later please?"

He nodded, kissing my hair and wiping away tear tracks from my cheek and then smiled. "My Jacey. You're brilliant, no matter what. OK? And I'm always, always here." Then he pulled back, and took the lady's place at the microphone. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick. Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?" They were all silent until there was a big burst of noisy, purple corkscrewed laughter. "Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."

Something came then, and the room was light up with red bursts of noise every few seconds. And everyone started to leave. "Would've landed quite near here. With a very loud-"

"Quickly as you can, down to the shelter."

I spotted a poster and pulled him down to look at it. Hitler will Send no Warning. "Rose?" We both called, now realising her top was really not a good idea. And we ran back to where the TARDIS was, and a cat meowed.

Picking her up, the Doctor bopped my nose with her little paw. "You know, one day, just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole don't wander off thing. Plus, you're no exception, love. That whole Phoenix and the Sontarans thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me." And then the phone started ringing.

"How can you be ringing?" He asked, handing me the cat. She's adorable, we were keeping her. "What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"

But just as he got out his sonic, another girl who looked to be around my age came up the alley. "Don't answer it. It's not for you."

"And how do you know that?" I asked, sneakily letting my new pet, who I was calling Rain because of her beautiful grey eyes, into the TARDIS without the Doctor realising.

"'Cos I do. And I'm telling you, don't answer it."

He wasn't all that impressed with her though, making sure I was safe. "Well, if you know so much, tell me this. How can it be ringing? It's not even a real one. It's not connected, it's not-" But she was gone and he answered it. "Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?" He seemed surprised with this. "Who is this? Who's speaking? Who is this? How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

Then he hung up and knocked on the door. "Rose? Rose, are you in there?" I was keeping my cat. I've never had a pet, and the TARDIS was plenty big enough. But then he started running and I sprinted after him.

We did some garden hopping, which was gross as everything was coated in grease, but then we saw a woman ushering her family into the air raid shelter. And then when they were in there, the girl from before went into the kitchen and took tinned foods from the cupboard.

And once that was done, she went to the front door, and whistled twice before a load of kids came in. "Many kids out there?" She asked one, as they all dove for the food. "Ah! Still carving. Sit and wait. We've got the whole air raid."

And then we watched the girl take charge, making sure that everyone was getting some. And we sat down with them. Not that they realised until the Doctor said thanks. I got away with it, being a similar age, but he was an adult. Unless we're playing Monopoly. "It's all right. Everybody stay where you are!"

"Good here, innit?" I smiled, looking in disgust at the fatty, greasy food in front of me, as all the kids moved aside. "Who's got the salt?"

But the girl, Nancy, sorted them all out. "Back in your seats. He shouldn't be here either, and look at her, she's skinnier than all of us together."

"I'll agree with you there. Jace, start eating." Oh, thanks, _dad._ "So, you lot, what's the story?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're homeless, right? Living rough? I did that, from when I was 10 to around 14. I'm 15 soon too." I told them, smiling as I picked at the greasy food, specks of fat in there. It made what little I had in my stomach churn. I ate little, and always vegetarian. I had to hide in a slaughter house once.

Then the Doctor started talking. "I make it 1941. You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated. Sent me to a farm." One said.

I frowned at him. "So why'd you come back?"

"There was a man there." I flinched, knowing what that was like. A man that liked you a little too much.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around me, kissing my hair as a couple of kids agreed. "Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago." And they said how Nancy got them good food. I'd have to remember that, if I ever did end up back on the streets.

"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you."

Nancy raised an eye brow. "Something wrong with that?"

"Wrong with it?" He grinned manically. "It's brilliant. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical." Oh, nice. But I didn't mind him talking, his calm, yet excited voice with its yellow and green waves mostly covered the dark grey of the planes in the sky.

The older girl still wasn't impressed. "Why'd you follow me? What do you want?"

"We want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call." Oh, that reminded me, I had a cat in the TARDIS. Hopefully she wouldn't wander off, that would just be too much. "You seem to be the one to ask."

"I did you a favour. I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you." That helped.

The Doctor agreed with me. "Great, thanks. And Jace and I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving. Anybody seen a girl like that?" Nancy came over and took his plate away as I gave up trying to eat. "What have I done wrong?"

"You took two slices. Jace, you need to eat something. No blondes, no flags. Anything else before you leave?"

"Yeah, there is actually." Come on, Doctor, the girl was just trying to feed these kids. "Thanks for asking. Something I've been looking for. Would've fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, anyway. Wouldn't have exploded. Probably would have just buried itself in the ground somewhere, and it would have looked something like this." He held up a rough sketch of the craft the TARDIS was following. Basically, a tube. A knock on the door made everyone jump.

"Mummy? Are you in there, mummy?" We looked and saw a little boy in a gas mask, still out in the cold. "Mummy?"

Nancy looked around at all the kids. "Who was the last one in?" Pointing fingers time. And then she dashed to close the front door and we followed.

Why was she locking this little boy out? "What's this, then? It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."

She gave the Doctor a bitter smile. "I suppose you'd know."

"I do actually, yes. It's another reason why I won't ever abandon my Jace."

"It's not exactly a child." She said after a moment, seeing the Doctor with his hand on my shoulder protectively.

But she didn't look long, getting everyone out of the dining room and into the night again, being so careful with the youngest, a tiny little girl of about 3 or 4. I knew the way she was acting. She was a mother, or at least had looked after a brother or sister like her own.

"Mummy? Mummy? Please let me in, mummy. Please let me in, mummy."

The boy put his hand through the letter box and I wanted to take it, seeing the scar. "Are you all right?"

"Please let me in."

But Nancy threw something at the boy and it shattered, making him withdraw. "You mustn't let him touch you!"

The Doctor put my behind him at that, where he knew I wasn't going to be caught by him. "What happens if he touches us?"

"He'll make you like him."

I didn't like the sound of that. "And what's he like?"

She shook her head. "I've got to go."

I darted to grab her hand stopping her from running off. "Nancy, what's he like?"

Her once bright blue eyes were now dead as she looked back at me. "He's empty." And then the phone started ringing. "It's him. He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw."

"Are you my mummy?" I heard when the Doctor picked it up. Always that. Nancy put it back down, but I heard and saw a crackle of black and white static from the kitchen and the voice started up there again. "Mummy? Please let me in, mummy."' And then the clockwork monkey started doing the same.

Nancy pulled free and started running. "You stay if you want to."

The boy puts his hand through the letterbox again as she ran to the back door, the Doctor holding me tight. "Mummy? Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in."

"Your mummy isn't here." I told him, taking the Doctor's hand tight, feeling so bad for the little boy.

"Are you my mummy?"

"No mummies here." He told him. "Just a dad. Nobody here but us chickens. Well, this chicken and a chick." I wasn't a chick, or a child.

The little boy was breaking my heart. "I'm scared."

"Why are those other children frightened of you?"

He didn't answer the question. "Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs."

I couldn't help it, I got to my feet and walked towards the door. "Okay. I'm opening the door now." The hand pulled back, but as I took the bolts down and opened the door he had gone, leaving just the small trail of his sound, little white foot prints on the wet street.

 **DW**

"How'd you follow me here?" Nancy asked as the Doctor and I smiled at her.

"I'm good at following, me. Got the eyes for it." That wasn't an understatement, I really did. I followed the footprints, dark blue on the grey path. Hard to spot, but not impossible.

She was still confused. "People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to."

The Doctor shrugged, keeping his hand on my shoulder. "Her eyes and ears have special powers."

"Goodnight, Mister, Miss."

As someone her age, I knelt down with her, not caring about the wet mud getting on my jeans. Worse had been on there. "Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right? The thing we're looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed." Her eyes were dark and knowing, like she was so scared but she didn't want to say. "And you know what we're talking about, don't you?"

Nancy hesitated for a moment. "There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."

The Doctor copied me, kneeling down. "Take me there."

"There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire." Been through worse. Razor wire that was electrified. There was a reason my wrist had been broken. "You'll never get through."

We both kept our eyes on her. "Try me."

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"

The Doctor nodded. "We really want to know."

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."

Well, at least we were getting somewhere. "And who might that be?"

"The Doctor." That was a turn of events, but she lead us to where the camp was and we saw that there was a lot soldiers. And I saw the cleaning of guns, the metallic shine of them in the low lighting that only my special eyes could see. "The bomb's under that tarpaulin. They put the fence up over night. See that building? The hospital."

I saw it and saw the slight buzz of electicity in the walls, telling me it was still in use, if not full of just empty vessels from the war conflict. "What about it?"

She nodded a little, looking scared. "That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."

"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there. Jace, you go there, and I'll go into the camp." Uh, no. We were staying together. Not quite ready for my own adventure again just yet. That ended bady.

But luckily Nancy was on my side for this. "Talk to the doctor first."

But I was still confused by this. "Why?"

"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside."

And then she got to her feet, heading to the main path again. "Where're you going?"

Nancy just shrugged. "There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."

"Can I ask you a question?" She paused, looking hesitantly at the Doctor. "Who did you lose?"

That made her blink. "What?"

"The way you look after all those kids." I pointed out, knowing I'd seen the same thing. "It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."

Her eyes darkened even further. "My little brother. Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just. He just didn't like being on his own." I knew how that felt, and so did the Doctor, squeezing my hand and putting his leather jacket on me as I started shivering, even through the coat I had on.

"What happened?"

"In the middle of an air raid?" She reminded us. "What do you think happened?"

He gave a massive smile, rubbing my arms. "Amazing."

"What is?"

"1941." He beamed. "Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then do what you've got to do. Save the world."

And then she walked away and we went to the hospital, somewhere that sent shivers down my spine. All the bed were filled, all with gasmasks on, and an elderly doctor came in after a moment, leaving us in silence for a moment. "You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them." That was really not good, and very, very ominous. I loved big words, just the power in a single word.

"Yes, we saw." The Doctor agreed, keeping me behind him. "Why are they still wearing gas masks?"

He didn't seem concerned. "They're not. Who are you?"

"I'm, er." He changed the question. "Are you the doctor?"

The man nodded. "Doctor Constantine. And you are?"

It was our turn to nod. "Nancy sent us. I'm Jace."

"Nancy?" Doctor Constantines eyes widened for a moment. "That means you must've been asking about the bomb." We agreed. "What do you know about it?"

Surely that was obvious? "Nothing. Why we were asking. What do you know?"

The man shrugged, sitting down tiredly. "Only what it's done."

"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?" I asked, looking at all of them.

He shook his head. "None of them were." Doctor Constantine chuckled, then coughed violently, shaking the entire chair as the Doctor walked a little closer.

"You're very sick."

"Dying," He corrected. "I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

"I have my moments."

"Have you examined any of them yet?"

"No."

He didn't seem all to concerned. "Don't touch the flesh."

That didn't make much sense. "Which one?"

"Any one." The Doctor told me to stay back and examined one with the sonic, sending spirals of blue around, making me smile as usual as I ran my fingers through the corckscrews of sonic waves. "Conclusions? Besides your evidently insane daughter."

That made him glare, because even though it was considered a madness, I wasn't overly crazy unless my senses were overwhelmed by too much at once. "Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns."

"Examine another one."

He did as he was told and didn't look pleased. "This isn't possible."

"Examine another." He did again and repeated himself. "No."

"Doctor, what is it?" I asked, going to move closer but he held me back.

"They've all got the same injuries."

Constantine nodded. "Yes."

This was really not sounding good. "Exactly the same."

"Yes."

"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand." I paused, seeing he had the scar, though he hid it. He was infected. "How did this happen? How did it start?"

He shrugged. "When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."

The little boy... "Dead?"

"At first." Constantine agreed. "His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head trauma." I told him, knowing that the brain would have given out before the lungs. He disagreed and the Doctor suggested asphyxiation and the chest cavity collapsing before I started seeing what Constantine was getting at. "Doctor... They're not dead..." Because small, very small, waves were coming off of them, just over where their heart would be.

Constantine nodded, hitting a waste basket with his stick and the noise made the patients sit up in their beds. "It's all right. They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No life signs of any kind, besides a slight heart beat. They just don't die."

"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" The Doctor asked as they all lay back down, creeping the hell out of me.

"I try and make them comfortable." He told us tiredly, and I was reminded of the fact he was infected. "What else is there?"

But that wasn't good. "Just you? You're the only one here?"

"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."

The Doctor nodded, holding me close again. "Yeah. I know the feeling. Jace... she was a surprise, but she's everything to me now." Oh... Who cares if he's not my real dad, he's trying either way.

He just shruffed. "I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb."

That wouldn't work. "Probably too late."

"No. There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London." He started coughing again and the Doctor went to help but I held his hand tight, not letting him. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."

I frowned. "Nancy?"

"It was her brother." Oh God... "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might Mummy. Are you my mummy?" No... I had to turn around, swallowing more nausea as his face started becoming a gasmask.

And then we heard Rose, calling for someone, as well as a guys voice. We followed the sound where we found Rosie, and a Captain of the American Navy. He was nice looking, but a bit too good looking. Rose seemed smitten though. "Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over."

"He knows." Rose said, giving a knowing look. "I had to tell him about us being Time Agents, and Jace being an apprentice, as well as your daughter."

Jack, with his honey coloured voice, laced with charm and melted chocolate, shook his and my hands. "And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock, Miss Spock." And then he walked in.

We both stared at her. "Mister Spock? Miss Spock?"

"What was I supposed to say?" She asked, hugging me and checking me down for injuries. I was fine, just a bit spinny from trying not to throw up one too many times. "You don't have a name, which makes Jacey hard to explain. Don't you ever get tired of Doctor? Doctor who?"

He just gave her a hard look. "Nine centuries in, I'm coping. Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."

"Who's strolling?" She smirked, holding my hand as we followed Jack into the ward again. "I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid."

We stared again. "What?!"

At which pojnt she changed the subject. "Listen, what's a Chula warship?"

"Chula?"

Jack was using a wrist tricorder thing to examine the patients as we saw him and the conversation was dropped a little. "This just isn't possible. How did this happen?"

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor asked him, getting right to the point.

He blinked. "What?"

"He said it was a warship." Rose told us. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."

Nothing much was sounding good today. "What kind of warship?"

"Does it matter?" He asked. "It's got nothing to do with this."

"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?"

"An ambulance! Look." Jack produced a hologram of it from his wrist device, that was already giving me a headache with its tinny sound. !That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait."

"Bait?"

Jack was really telling us everything now. "I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."

"You said it was a war ship." Rose told him, not quite as smitten now.

He gave her a look. "They have ambulances in wars. It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you."

"Just a couple more freelancers." I agreed.

"Oh. Should have known. The way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain with his synesthetic daughter?" Was it that obvious? "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

Rose turned to look back at us. "What is happening here, Doctor?"

"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot." He said, doing what he normally did when stressed, and pacing, pausing to check me every few seconds.

But this confused her. "What do you mean?"

"We don't know." I told her. "Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"

And then the patients suddenly sat up. "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy? Mummy?"

"What's happening?"

He shook his head as they all moved to stand, even poor Doctor Constantine. "I don't know. Jacey, stay behind me. Don't let them touch you."

"What happens if they touch us?" Rose asked, taking my other hand, making sure I was well and truly protected. I wasn't just a kid! I could protect myself!

"You're looking at it." And they kept closing in on us, and it was not looking good. Oh, poor Rain, all alone in the TARDIS...


	9. Family

Doctor:

Just as the patients were within touching distance, I felt Jace hugging me from behind. I had to do this, I had to get at least her out of the room, alive. "Go to your room." Told them all, and they stood very still. "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!" They all hung their heads in shame, shuffling back to their beds. "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."

Jace pulled me to hug her fully and I kissed her hair, grateful to have her to keep me on track. "Hey... I've got you love, I've got you..."

"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked after a moment, when we'd made sure it was safe for the moment.

"They're not." Jack, the not so Captain, Captain, told her. "Those masks are flesh and bone."

That reminded me actually. "How was your con supposed to work?"

He just shrugged. "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah." Jacey grumbled, still holding my hand tight. I wondered what the sound of their voices showed her. "Perfect."

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." We were all glaring at him. "Getting a hint of disapproval."

Jace was the one to tell him what was what. "Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did. It reeks of the same radiation you do! It's all I can see, this gold light!" Wait, gold light?

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty. You're just a kid, you don't know what you're seeing!" Oh, she may not, but she sure as hell knew just what to tell me she was seeing.

"Jace, Rose." I said, starting to walk out of the ward

They followed right away for once. "Are we getting out of here?"

"We're going upstairs."

Jack was still trying to prove his point. "I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

Jace was still having none of it. "I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day." Then a siren sounded, and she buckled, covering her eyes as I darted to cover her ears at the same time. "What is that?!"

"The all clear." Jack said after a moment, when it stopped and she stood up, still close by my side.

We both shook our heads, my little girl and I. "I wish."

"Mister Spock?" He asked, as I followed her lead, knowing she was surrounded by painful light. God, if she was really my daughter, I'd be so, so happy. She was mostly Time Lord, and there were only ever two Time Lords Lucie met. Me and another who tried to kill her.

"Doctor? Jacey?" They both ran past us.

"Have you got a blaster?" I called, wondering where they thought they were going. And then they ran back, and he took it out. "The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."

Rose seemed a little shocked. "What happened?"

"Let's find out." I shrugged. "Get it open."

Jace pulled me back a little, frowning as she probably saw something similar to the sonic as Jack used his blaster. "What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?"

"Nothing. Sonic blaster, fifty first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"

He seemed surprised and Jace realised. Rose was with her mum for a night and we went off together. "You've been to the factories?"

"Once." We agreed.

"Well, they gone now, destroyed." He said sadly. "The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

My Jacey grinned. "Like we said. Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good, one of the few things I can stomach."

And then she walked into the next room, where there were a load of cabinets and mess in general. The observation window was also shattered. "What do you think?"

"Something got out of here."

"Yeah. And?"

Jace was doing her bit at seeing something we couldn't. "Something powerful. Angry."

We saw a load of children's drawings on the wall. "A child? I suppose this explains Mummy."

"How could a child do this?"

I reached over and turned on a tape machine, and saw Jace flinch at the moment of static before Constantine's voice came through. "Do you know where you are?"

"Are you my mummy?" It went near enough the same, and then Rose interrupted.

"Doctor, I've heard this voice before."

Jace and I nodded. "Us too."

"Always are you my mummy?." She agreed. "Like he doesn't know."

My possible daughter hugged her arms around herself, still cold, even in my jacket and her coat. "Why doesn't he know? To be fair, I only thought I knew."

"Mummy?" The voice was still going, but there was something, something I couldn't quite get. "Please, mummy? Mummy?"

Jace moved forward, and saw I was confused. "Doctor?"

"Can you sense it?" She nodded, and I knew why. She was like me, Time Lord, with the same senses, though they were heightened because of the synaesthesia.

But no one else could. "Sense what?"

"Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it? It's coming off in waves, it's red, and black and everything, it's anger and pain, and nothing... I don't know..." She shook her head. "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things? I know why I'm different now, how do you guys do it?

Rose then had to explain. "We don't know if they're dad and daughter, but she's half what he is, and they can do things we can't. When they're stressed, they likes to insult species."

That wasn't helping. "Rose, I'm thinking."

"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than."

Jace started pacing, doing exactly what I do. "There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food. Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med-ship."Jack said yet again. "It was harmless."

Said it until your lungs turn blue, it wasn't going to change the fact you were wrong. "Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

"Altered how?"

"I'm here!" Jace went still, and I frowned, but she didn't move.

"It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god, and You just sent it to it's room." Rose questioned the small clicking noise that was now occurring. "What's that noise?"

Oh... Oh, that was not going to end well. "End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago."

The voice was still going. "I'm here, now. Can't you see me?"

"I sent it to it's room." I realised what Jace meant. "This is it's room." I turned with her, to see the child behind me.

"Are you my mummy? Mummy?"

"Doctor? Jace?"

Jack took charge. "Okay, on my signal make for the door."

And then he aimed his blaster at the door, except it was just a banana and Jacey started laughing, aiming it instead. "Go now! Don't drop the banana!"

"Why not?!"

"Good source of potassium!" She laughed, jumping through with me.

He grabbed it back after. "Give me that!" He repaired the hole in the wall. "Digital rewind. Nice switch. Pick pocket by trade or just a skill your people have?"

"It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate." She shrugged, eating it. Good. "And I spent a good part of my life on the street. We steal to survive."

This was new to Jack. "There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you two did that?"

"Bananas are good." But then the wall started to crack and we started running again. Though the patients were a little rebellious after being sent to their room now, and were coming from the other direction. "It's keeping us here till it can get at us."

Rose stared at me. "It's controlling them?"

Jace shook her head. "It is them. It's every living thing in this hospital. A thin golden line between all of them, all going back to that one child."

"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic, er." I held up the sonic, making my little girl smile. "Oh, never mind."

"What?"

I was so never going to live this down. "It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."

"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!"

"A sonic what?!"

"Screwdriver!"

The child broke through the wall, as Jace grabbed Jack's blaster and pointed it at the floor. "Going down!" Falling down a storey was not nice and it hurt as we got to our feet, but I had a 14 year old land on me. I'd rather that than her break her wrist again though. "Doctor, are you okay?"

I nodded, helping her to her feet again. "Could've used a warning, though, my Jacey."

"Oh, the gratitude."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked me, as the other two went on a search for lights. Jace didn't need them, but she'd want us in the light.

"I do."

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?"

"What, you've never been bored?" I asked him, getting defensive of my little buddy. "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

And then the patients sat up in bed as the lights were found and we ran for the door. Except the blaster didn't work. "Damn it! It's the special features. They really drain the battery."

"The battery?" Rose questioned, as I got us into the storeroom. "That's so lame!"

"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory."

We beamed as Rose just shrugged. "Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates. With Jace, it was more subdued. He nearly blew us all up." Well, she saved us.

"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door? The wall didn't stop it!"

"Well, it's got to find us first!" Jace snapped, sitting next to him as he sat down in a wheelchair. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

Jack rolled his eyes at the little street girl. "Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves. Plus, she can be sentry, she can see when they're coming."m

"She has a name, and it's Jace, or Jacey. Window."

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."

Rose sighed. "And no other exits."

The not so Captain smiled at me. "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"

Oh, I did not like this guy. "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"

"Doctor."

Jack got defensive, and just a little flirty. "She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance."

"Okay." I thought of a list that was everything. "One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

Rose came back a little spooked. "Yeah. Jack just disappeared." Didn't surprise me. "With Jace"

"What!?" I turned to see my daughter gone, my jacket in the side again. "Oh, he'd better not hurt her!"

She shook her head. "Jace can look after herself. Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?'

I was trying to not track his teleport back and get him here again, and being insulted was not helping. "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."

"I mean, men." That didn't help.

"Okay, thanks, that really helped."

And then the radio crackled to life. "Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. Jace was close enough to be brought through, and she's safe. I'm working on it. Hang in there."

"Oh, she had better be safe Jack!" I found the lack of cable or electricity in the radio he was speaking through. "How're you speaking to us?"

"Om-Com." He replied. "I can call anything with a speaker grill."

Could he now. "Now there's a coincidence."

Jack got confused. "What is?"

"The child can Om-Com, too." I heard Jace In the background, still sounding a little nauseated.

Rose hadn't learnt this. "He can?"

"Anything with a speaker grill." Jacey and I agreed. "Even the TARDIS phone."

"What, you mean the child can phone us?"

The childs voice came through then. "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you."

My Jace sounded just a little spooked. "Doctor, can you hear that?"

"Loud and clear."

"I'll try to block out the signal" Jack told us. "Least I can do. Remember this one, Rose?"

Moonlight Serenade started coming through the radio and I heard Jace sigh and well as me. How cliché could you get? "Our song."

A little later, Rose was relaxing in the wheelchair Jack had vacated while I was at the barred window with the ever-versatile sonic screwdriver, trying to actually get us out of here, so I could get Jaclyn back, and then move on to stopping whatever Jack the idiot, a different kind of idiot to Rickey the Idiot, had caused with the children. "What you doing?" She eventually asked.

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars."

"You don't think he's coming back, do you?"

I didn't even try to turn around. "Wouldn't bet my life. But we're tracking him down to get Jace."

Rose sighed again, something she'd been doing a lot recently. "Why don't you trust him? Moreover, why don't you trust Jace to make her own decisions? She saved a lot of lives, including mine last week."

"Why do you?" I ignored the last part.

"He saved my life." I'd done exactly the same. "Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing." I had to stare at her with that, because I loved dancing, or at least I had. "What?"

"You just assume I'm-"

"What?"

Why was it so hard to just say this? "You just assume that I don't dance."

"What, are you telling me you do dance?"

This was getting pretty mean. "Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced." Though at the moment I was better at just teaching Jace music, not that she needed to learn much.

Rose was staring at me now. "You?"

"Problem?"

"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?" Come on, that was just stupid.

"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast."

Rose turned up the volume on the radio. It was still Moonlight Serenade, nice, but as I'd said. Cliché. "You've got the moves? Show me your moves. Jace can't see, she won't get embarrassed." Oh, if only.

"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete."

"Jack'll be back." She told me holding out her hand. "He'll get us out, and make sure Jace is safe. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."

I looked at her palms, confused as to why her hands were so soft and unaffected by that apparent swing on a balloon. "Barrage balloon?"

"What?"

"You were hanging from a barrage balloon."

She realised. "Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest."

"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you and Jace are setting new records for jeopardy friendly."

I was just standing with her, while she was trying to move me about. "Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes."

"Hanging from a rope thousands feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise."

She smiled a little. "Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up."

Now that was news to me. "Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"

"Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain." Because that was the truth.

"He's not really a Captain, Rose."

"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy, or at least you want Jace to at least call you dad, or just be more like your daughter." Now, that was a little hard, she had a dad and in general, she's still Harry Monroe's daughter, not mine. "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."

I didn't rise to the Jace part. "If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked."

"Yeah?" She asked, smirking a little. She was so beautiful. "Shame I missed that."

"Actually, I quit." Jack said, and we looked over to see that we were in a ship. And Jace was sat nursing a cup of tea, looking pale and shaky. She was probably catching that cold. "Nobody takes my frock. Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

Hmmm, that didn't sound exactly great. "You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."

He gave her a big smile. "Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes. Jace is coming down with future grade influenza, I'm giving her some medicine to heal her."

"This is a Chula ship. And that won't work, she's not human, at least not fully."

He nodded. "It's worth trying, even if she isn't fully human. Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."

I snapped my fingers and a golden glow enveloped my hands, meaning that Jace was seeing what I thought she was. "They're what fixed my hands up Jack called them er"

"Nanobots?" I suggested. "Nanogenes."

Rose nodded as I let them heal me, before moving to wrap my arms back around Jace. "Nanogenes, yeah."

"Sub-atomic robots." She said sleepily. "There's millions of them in here, all singing and chattering. Jack said I shouldn't be able to see them."

Kissing her head, I put on her special sun glasses that were supposed to calm her down, get her synaethesia back to a manageable level. "Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws, but you're too different, they register you as unknown. Sorry, but this cold is not going any time soon." She shrugged and I just held her closer. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-com back online." Jack told me, getting on with something on his much smaller and more boring console. "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."

What was going on? "We were talking about dancing."

Jace giggled a little. "It didn't look like talking."

"It didn't feel like dancing." Rose added, but then we headed towards the bomb site, and I kept tight of Jace's hand as she was sniffling, still wearing the sunnies. "So, you used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?"

"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."

That was strange. "For what?"

2"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories." Ouch, that was a little bad. Two years was probably not good, depending on why they were taken. "I'd like them back."

Jace stared at him. "They stole your memories?"

"Two years of my life." He nodded. "No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know he's right not to, and that little girl is rather strange. She's able to see every sound, and every smell is a small sound, and she seems to be OK with that." It came with practice. "Okay, we're good to go. Crash site? There it is. Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

We all saw the man stood on duty and I sighed. "We've got to get past him."

Rose gave a wry smile, pulling down her top. "Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?"

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Jack smiled, shaking his head.

"Don't worry I can handle it."

I saw where this was going, and I had a feeling Jace did too. I had a feeling she was a-sexual to be fair, she'd hated any type of affection and after what had happened to her, I couldn't blame her. "I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him. Don't wait up."

"Relax, he's a fifty first century guy." I teased, patting Rose's shoulder as he wandered off over to him. "He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

Her eyebrows went up. "How flexible?"

That was an interesting topic. "Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."

"Meaning?"

I gave her a sly grin. "So many species, so little time."

"What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and-"

She couldn't say it so I did. "Dance." But then the guard started to retch, falling to his knees, proving that the infection was spreading. "Stay back!" I shouted to the other men, running over with Rose and Jace. "The effect's become air-borne, accelerating."

The air raid sirens started up again, and Jace flinched. The glasses wouldn't help being this close to the start. "What's keeping us safe?" She asked, and I shrugged.

"Nothing."

All of the people started coming back then, the patients from the hospital. "Ah, here they come again."

Rose sighed, going to the other side of Jace, who was swaying a little. God, this was just as bad as when I had it. "All we need. Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"

When did I... ohhhh... "Never mind about that. If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left."

"For what?"

"Till nothing, forever." I told them, moving Jace up onto my back where I could easily keep hold of her. She was so light and she just hid her face in my shoulder. "For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing? Jace, point where its coming from."

Jacey pointed to a large tent and we went in, seeing Nancy singing to one of them, who'd just transformed into a zombie. I got her out, and she was borderline having a panic attack before Jack got us to the ambulance. "You see? Just an ambulance."

"That's an ambulance?"

"It's hard to explain." Rose told her. "It's from another world."

Jack was checking it all over. "They've been trying to get in."

And my poorly girl scoffed at him. "Of course they have, moron. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." And then an alarm with off as well as some sparks. "Didn't happen last time."

I shook my head, putting her down where she just slid to the ground, half asleep and looking weaker. "It hadn't crashed last time. There'll be emergency protocols. Captain, secure those gates!" He argued. "Just do it! Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire."

Simple enough. "Show Rose. Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D." I threw her the sonic and explained. " Reattaches barbed wire. Go!"

The toddled off and I put my coat over Jace as she shivered again, before Jack got it open. "It's empty. Look at it."

This man was beyond thick. "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

Jace sat up a little, coughing. "Nanogenes!"

"It wasn't empty, Captain." I nodded, giving her a bottle of water from the pocket. "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God." Finally, he realised.

"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask."

Rose didn't understand. "And they brought him back to life? They can do that?"

"What's life? Life's easy." I told her, starting to pace back and forth in the mud. "A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

And then the patients started getting closer and closer. "I didn't know." Jack told me, but he should have. Jace could see it, there were nanogenes everywhere, they were connecting everything.

"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"

I nodded, still working on the ship. "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."

"But the gas mask people aren't troops." Jace said, shaking her head and blowing her nose again.

"They are now, Jacey." I sighed, trying to get this thing to do what I wanted. "This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."

And then it clicked for Rose. "That's why the child's so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing."

I agreed, looking at all the patients, waiting for us outside the barbed wire. "It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked, looking confused.

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."

"The child?"

"Jamie."

We all looked at Nancy. "What?"

"Not the child." She said again. "Jamie." Huh, she was very protective over that. Over a name that her mother or father must have chosen.

Rose got us back onto the main subject. "So how long until the bomb falls?"

"Any second."

Jace shook her head. "What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?" And then a succession of sneezes.

Nancy was close to crying. "He's just a little boy."

"I know."

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."

God, her little brother. "I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can." And at times I wished I could tear my world apart for my Jace.

"It's my fault." What? "It is. It's all my fault."

I looked at her hard. How can it be your" And then I worked it out. Mummy. "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty one? Older than you look, yes?"

"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds."

Rose turned to look at him. "You can teleport us out."

He shook his head. "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols. I could get one out, and that's Jace, the computer would recognise her again."

"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do." I looked at Jace, and knew she couldn't run, she was sick. "Take her, get her to safety." And then they were gone. "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him." Jamie was there then, her little boy who she loved with all her heart. Asking for his mummy. "He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop. Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."

They both walked towards each other, and Jamie just looked at her. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy." She told him, but he just kept repeating it. "I'm here. I'm here."

"He doesn't understand." I realised. "There's not enough of him left."

"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." She then knelt down and hugged Jamie, her little boy and cloud of the nanogenes surrounded them.

Rose came to the wrong conclusion. "What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should-"

"Shush!" I told her, praying that this would work, that everyone would live. "Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out." And then it started working. "See? Recognising the same DNA."

Jamie then let go of his mother, and then she fell back and I ran forward, hoping that it worked. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." I took of the gas mask, and started laughing, picking the little boy up and cuddling him. "Ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."

"What happened?" Nancy asked, looking at her little boy as I put him down, holding him close.

"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA." I grinned, patting his head. "They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!"

She hugged him close again, stroking his silky blonde hair. "Oh, Jamie."

"Doctor, that bomb."

I grinned at Rose. "Taken care of it."

"How?"

"Psychology." The bomb hurtled towards them, but just as it was about to hit, Jack's ship caught it, and he teleported onto it, Jace behind him, looking a lot better. "Jacey! Good lad! Thanks for healing her, you alright, love?"

Jace nodded, her bright blue eyes awake again, the glasses on her curls. "The bomb's already commenced detonation. Jack's put it in stasis but it won't last long." And then she easily jumped down, stumbled, and hugged me. "Your jacket is very warm."

Smiling, I kissed her hair, and then looked back at Jack. "Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?" He said goodbye, and then I summoned up more nanogenes, getting a questioning look from my Jace. "Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." Then I threw the nanogenes to the other patients, and they all fell to the ground. "Everybody lives, my Jacey Jay, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"

Everyone stood back up again, and we ran over. "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now."

"Yes, yes, so it seems." The man was a little confused, not that you could blame him. "They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

Jace giggled a little. "Well, you know, cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?" Then we went back over and Jace hugged Nancy. They'd be good friends. "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state! Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

The two girls folded their arms at me. "Usually the first in line."

Then we went back to the TARDIs, and I smiled, until I saw the cat curled up asleep on the jump seat. "Jace!"

She had the decency to look sheepish. "Her name's Rain. Look at her, she was hungry out on the street, Doctor." Jace picked her up and the cat meowed softly, nuzzling her face and starting to purr. I looked at the console and saw a collar with Rain written on it and then on the screen there was an image of Jace's bathroom with a litter tray. And there were cat treats. "Well, the TARDIS says yes."

"Please, please, please, Doctor..." She pleaded, and the cat jumped out of her arms, padding over to me and nuzzling my ankles, so I picked her up.

"Rain, huh?" I sighed, stroking her little black and white head. "Well, welcome to the family, then Rain." Jace grinned and hugged me again, and then I started explaining what was going on next. "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic! And we have a cat."

"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas." Rose grinned, stroking the cat herself next. Hadn't had a cat since I was little, as a little boy on Gallifrey.

Oh, this was far too tempting. "Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?" She stared. "And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."

"Doctor."

I looked at my little girl, who was looking a little lost, even though she'd gotten to keep Rain. "Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire."

"What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?"

Ah, that reminded me.

I started some music, well, Jace started playing some music, and then I got us to link to Jack's ship, and waited for him to notice. Jace was very good at music. "Well, hurry up then!" She shouted, the cat jumping. I loved a cats reaction to anything, it was like letting a kid loose in a car. They didn't know what they were doing.

He ran in and I was trying to dance with Rose. "Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson." Oh, this was not going well.

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." I sighed, turning to look at the other new tenant in my home. "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught." He did as he was told. "Welcome to the TARDIS. I'll say the same to you as I did Adam, food chain is me, Jace, Rose, Rain the new moggie, and then you. You're a little higher up than him."

Jack gave a wry smile. "Much bigger on the inside."

Oh, I was going to regret this. "You'd better be."

"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in." Rose smiled, walking down to him.

"Rose! I've just remembered!" She looked back at me as Jace swapped to a different song, a lot more upbeat. "I can dance! I can dance!"

She looked a little sheepish as Rain padded onto the console, falling asleep on the heat vent. Of course. "Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance."

"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" I grabbed her and started dancing. Oh, I could do this.

Be a dad, save all of time and space and still feed the cat?

Easy.


	10. The Seer

Jace

Pad pad pad pad. And then Rain started lighting patting my face, trying to get me to wake up. I opened my eyes, seeing the TARDIS resonating in a dark green, laced with purple. "Come on, cat. It's only half 6!"

She didn't care and kept doing it until I got up, walking into the kitchen with her and putting some Felix, or whatever this cat food was, into her little silver bowl.

"I hope you're happy, missus. I was planning on hiding in bed all day." I told her, grabbing myself a yogurt from the fridge and then a spoon. "Today is the type of day I want to avoid, because I don't want the attention."

Rain just mewed at me, and kept eating her breakfast as I walked back to my room. There was nothing on the way, but by the time I got in there, the others had a chance to get in there and put up balloons, a banner, as well as get in a dish of pancakes with 15 little blue and white candles in there, and they all sang happy birthday.

The Doctor in a deep baritone of red serpentine line, Rose in a soft choir girl yellow, rolling in a ringlet, and then Jack. Well, he was trying to imitate a broad way star in masses of gold and purple. Safe to say it lit up my room like the northern lights. "Happy birthday to you!"

"Go on then, Jacey, blow out the candles." The Doctor grinned, holding them out, and I did as I was told, but I didn't make a wish. I knew wishes were for kids, and being on the street stopped you from being a kid, and you lost what made you happy for a birthday when for the third year running you found out the day because there was yet another appeal for me to come home on the News. "That's my girl, come on, breakfast in bed."

Again, I did as I was told, not looking forward to the big fuss that was about to be made of me. I hated attention, I always had after the accident. Who was left that really loved me, to give me attention that was good? "OK, we know you didn't want a big fuss on your birthday, but then we found out about you being Time Lord. Well, mostly Time Lord. And 15 is a big age for us."

"It's just a number, Doctor." I sighed, shaking my head. "Can we not do this, please? I hate my birthday."

Jack came and sat next to me on the bed, and he wrapped his arms around me. Since the Doctor taking me in, I'd gotten a dad, sort of, out of him, a sort of mum through Jackie, a big sister through Rose, a brother from Mickey, and then from Jack, well, he was kind of like a kooky uncle. "Jacey Jay, you deserve a fuss made of you. Every birthday is supposed to be special, even if you're as old as the Doctor. Come on, one day where you get to eat breakfast in bed, and I made it so I know its not poisonous like the Doctor's attempt, prezzies and then just having a nice day doing whatever you want to do."

Rose then took up position on the other side, stroking my bedhead down into some form of submission. "Plus, all you have to do, is open some presents, eat pancakes, and then you can hide as much as you want."

"Hey, there is something else she needs to do. " The Doctor tried, but Rose and Jack silenced him. "Fine. Its not that important. Just eat, please. They're made specially for you, Jacey."

I ate, well, nibbled and let the cat who eventually came back eat them as well, before they all sat in front of me and handed me a massive, hand made card of all of us, drawn by Rose by the look of it, so her hair was yellow, mine was grey, and the Doctor's ears were massive, but it was very sweet, because they'd done my eyes rainbow, which was how I saw the world.

"Thank you, that's a really nice card, and loving how Jack's muscles are more weighty than my entire body." I giggled, making Rose blush and Jack just grinned.

Then the Doctor handed me a little bag with a circle design on the side, and something deep inside me told me what it meant, that it was my name, Jaclyn Smith, but there was another meaning to it, a Gallifreyan, or Time Lord meaning. Calliope, meaning beautiful voice. "'Thats not the present, I just ran your name and date of birth through a book and thats what came out. It would have been what you were called at the Academy."

"Oh, right. Um, how come I can..."

"Read it?" I nodded. "Every Gallifreyan is born able to read it. I wanted to see if you could read it, Beautiful Voice." He gave me a proud smile, and then I opened the back, taking out a book with more of the circular design but then individual letters inside. "That's Old High Gallifreyan, you may not be able to read that but-"

I interrupted. "The Full, Concise History of the Time Lords, written by the Last Great Prophet."

The Doctor probably couldn't have looked more proud then. "That's it then. Only certain family lines were able to read that from birth." He saw my face, looking down and got that I didn't to talk about it. "Sorry, sorry. I'm getting over excited. Let's just forget that happened."

"Yeah. Lets do that." I said softly, moving the book to the bedside table and made a note to hide it later. I was still human to me, and I wasn't ready to know about this just yet.

Next Jack handed me a little box with multicoloured swirls over it. "Yeah, I got carried away. I like giving birthday presents and I haven't had anyone to give them to in a while."

"It's amazing. I can keep my drum sticks in it after." I smiled, running my fingers over the smooth woods, smiling at the smooth grey of sound that came off before opening them and finding thick framed glasses inside, clear glass and blue plastic. "Uh, I don't wear glasses, or do dress up, Jack..."

He laughed and that and moved to put them on me, which he did fairly well. They were normal. "They do something better than those weird ass sunglasses." I stared at him, not able to see any form of colour from anything from the ship, let alone the usual deep blue of his melted chocolate voice. "For when your senses are being over loaded."

I had to hug him at that, glad that if I was on a painful space station that I wouldn't be stuck with sunglasses or having my eyes closed. "Thank you! They're a little bulky but still cool. How do I look?"

"Like a little swot." Rose laughed, handing me another small gift, this one wrapped in typical Rose pink tissue paper and I took it out to show a small photo frame of us all.

It was when we went to Space Vegas, Jack's idea, and the Doctor had not been amused when he hired him a stripper who turned up in a police woman's outfit, before we all started playing poker and I thrashed everyone. We were all happy and laughing.

"I love it, thank you!" I smiled, moving to hug her as well. "I've never had a photo of anyone, not even mum or dad."

That made her grin and she kisses my cheek. "Well, now yoy have us. And, Rain got you something too. Well, she tried to help but she just fell asleep of the wrapping paper."

We all laughed and I opened the last part, which was a dress, but it was in my sort of style. Dark blue with silver stars all over the skirt and the top was such a soft velvet that the brush of fabric sent shiver up my spine. "Oh... wow..."

"Go put it on then, you banana." The Doctor laughed, pulling me off the bed and giving me a shove towards the bathroom. "We want to see you in a dress for once!"

"This once!" I sighed, grabbing my underwear at the same time. I didn't have any tights, but I also hadn't reached the part of puberty where my legs needed shaving, weird for a 15 year old, but I wasn't an average 15 year old. So I put it on and carefully made sure it was hanging in the right places, before looking at myself in the mirror.

When I had first come to the TARDIS, I was beaten, bruised and my hair was matted and tangled. Now, now I was filling out a little, my scrawny form becoming more like a girls and less like a boys as I managed to put on weight, and my hair had been trimmed to get rid of all the dead bits and the curls had come back in full force around my face. "Wow, Jace. You have legs, albeit scarred and battered, but they're there."

Then there was a bang on the door. "Jace, hurry up, we want to see!" That was Rose, and she sounded a little giggly. "Jacey Jay!"

"Well, lets get this sorted, Jaclyn, because they're waiting." I sighed, and then came to the door, opening it to see all of them on the bed waiting, the Doctor looking a little pissed at something. Calliope. Jace Monroe, to Calliope Smith. He said there was something Time Lords did on their 15th birthday. What was that?

"Jace, you look amazing!" Jack said, standing up and pulling me further into the light where Rain then started nuzzling my bare legs, and I stooped to pick her up. "Seriously, you're gorgeous, and don't worry, you're far too young for me, and also the Doctor would have my balls as stress balls, but you're going to make someone very happy some day."

I would rather just make many people happy and save the universe multiple times than end up with someone again. Being intimate made my skin crawl. "Thank you, Jacky." I smiled, but I didn't really feel it. Everything felt fake, like it was cracking, right down to the thick glass in the frames, blocking out my synaesthesia.

And then my vision really was cracking, and Jack suddenly called to the Doctor as I went limp in his arms. "Jace, Jacey, Oh, my Jacey!" He cried, taking me out of his arms and running with me to the med room, lying me down quickly. "Jace, talk to me, talk, please."

"D, D, Doctor..." I breathed, only seeing everything like it was shattered, shattering and spiralling as the cracking further. "I, I can't... s, see..."

He seemed to understand to some degree, and grabbed a light to shine into my eyes, taking off the glasses before sighing. "You need to listen to me, Jace. This is normal. 15, 15 is the age of choosing, for a Gallifreyan, and I know. I know Jace, that you don't like being what I am, that you want to be human, but this is important."

"W, w, what?" I asked, trying to sit up a little, but the rooms was spinning, spiralling in masses of colour as everything got bolder, brighter and like you'd turned the saturation up on a photo, making it too heavy to be able to really see the picture. "My head... Doctor..."

Then he cupped my face, stroking my hair. "It's your mind, it's opening to it's potential, Jace. I went through this, and that's where I realised I didn't want to just sit on my bum, because I could see when something was going wrong. Jaclyn, there's nothing I can do, apart from hold your hand through it. Your mind, your mind is more open than mine from the beginning, the way you have a human imagination and sense of adventure yet the intelligence of a Time Lord and you're just amazing."

No, no, please... No more, please. I couldn't deal with this, my synesthesia was already too strong and I just wanted it to stop. "Doctor... stop it, please. Please, please, stop it..." I cried, trying to roll over. "I don't want this, I'm human, just let me be human..."

"Oh, my Jace. Come on, would it be so bad? You're no different, you're just you. Just 100% you. OK?" He then moved the bed into a sitting position, sitting behind me and stroking my hair. "No matter what, either way, you are you, you are Jace Monroe-Smith. And you are just going to be you."

Everything smashed completely then, leaving me in darkness.

DW

When I woke up, the colours... the colours were gone, completely. Everything looked like I was still wearing those glasses yet I could see them on the table. The Doctor was still asleep, behind me, his hand on the end of my hair, like he fell asleep stroking it, and as I sat up he stirred. "Jacey..."

"H, here..." I frowned, trying to think about the fact I could now not see the colours, the colours I'd been able to see since birth. "I, I can't see..."

That made him sit up, still using the sonic to scan me. "No, your vision is fine, love, what are you talking about?" Then he realised. "The colours. The colours are gone, your synesthesia."

"Why? Why are they gone?" I started crying, and he hugged me close, until I pulled back with a start, now able to see them again, the hum of the TARDIS now blue and lilac, telling me it was the next day, half 2 in the morning. I'd been asleep for a while. "T, they're back... But... They are always there, but they stopped for a moment..."

"Your mind is now open. You have so much control, baby. You can turn it off and on, and I think that you can probably manipulate the sounds, similar to the sonic. I remember a friend of mine who had a similar ability." He told me, stroking my hair and giving me a brave smile. "But no matter what, you're fine. You're you."

I pulled away, getting to my feet as Rose came into the room. I focused on her and the lights from the rest of the TARDIS faded so I could just see her heartbeat in her chest, individual bursts in pairs, that were then echoed throughout her body in her pulses, and it was amazing. "I'm like a bat, I can see sonar style. But with my synesthesia, it's colourful, your heart is pink but the pulses are green."

Rose blinked. "I'm not sure what's going on, but hey. Glad you're awake." She hugged me close. "You scared the hell out of us."

"I'm sorry, I, I wasn't expecting my vision to suddenly go like that, everything was spinning, and images refracted. Like I was looking through a broken mirror." I told her, so happy to have someone with me, who cared for me. "Got me out of my birthday though. "

"Ugh, no. I made cake, we're using it, but not until morning. Jacks got us to Cardiff, and Mickey's coming up for a visit." The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Hey, he helped us last time, and he deserves to see me, and he's been asking about Jace. He cares about her."

That didn't really seem to help. "Rickey the Idiot. The man who really needs to get a life. He's not coming with us." He didn't want to come with us. "Rose, can you get Jace some food, she needs to eat. "

Rose nodded, and then went out, leaving me alone with him. "You know, I like Mickey." I told him, running my hands through my hair. "Plus, I'm not hungry."

"You're never hungry. And there's another thing a Time Lord does on their 15th Birthday, Jacey." He smiled, grabbing a brush and then pulling me over to get the knots combed through. "They pick a name, like I did with the Doctor, my wife, my ex wife, chose the Inspirer. There are a lot of names that you could chose, the Sonar, the Rainbow, the Bat."

"The Seer."

He blinked. "What? The Seer?" Then he considered it for a moment. "Yeah. I like it. The Seer. You don't have to use it, unless you want to. You're just Jace Smith, or Jace Monroe. But no matter what, I love you, and I hope that you're going to someday embrace it. Embrace being who you are."

And maybe he was right. Maybe being Time Lord was fine. Being one of a kind and with an amazing ability. And I was looking forward to being able to control it, to control sound like I was able to see it. And maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to be someone real.

I was Jace Smith, the Seer.


	11. Dad

The Doctor:

I lept up from the floor, breathing hard as I started spinning, trying to get my bearing and work out where I was. "What is it? What's happening?" And then I fell out.

"Oh, my God! I don't believe it! Why'd they put you in there? They never said you were coming." A girl asked, running towards me and helping me to my feet.

"What happened?" I asked her confused as to why I was here. There was something I was missing, something so, so important. "I was."

The girl shook her head, leading me to the sofa. "Careful now. Oh! Oh, mind yourself! Oh, that's the transmat. It scrambles your head. I was sick for days. All right? So, what's your name then, sweetheart?"

What was my name? "The Doctor, I think. I was, er. I don't know, what happened? How-" I gestured the area, wondering how I got here.

"You got chosen."

That sounded ominous. "'Chosen for what?"

"You're a housemate." What? "You're in the house. Isn't that brilliant?!"

Another young person, male this time, in a t-shirt is not amused. "That's not fair. We've got eviction in five minutes! I've been here for all nine weeks, I've followed the rules, I haven't had a single warning, and then he comes swanning in."

Then dark-skinned young lady in the pink shirt joined in. "If they keep changing the rules, I'm going to protest, I am. You watch me, I'm going to paint the walls."

"Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room?" Well, that was me, so I should probably play along for the time being, at least until I found out what I was missing, so I went along with it and walked through a door with the stylised eye on it and sat in a comfy chair. "You are live on channel forty four thousand. Please do not swear."

I stared at the screen for a moment. "You have got to be kidding." And then I proceeded to mouth off.

Then I went back out and I looked around everywhere with the sonic, wishing that the thing I was missing would show up, so I knew what to do. "I can't open it."

"It's got a deadlock seal, ever since Big Brother five hundred and four when they all walked out." the first girl told me, not sure why I didn't understand what was going on. "You must remember that."

I ignored her, and moved to the two way glass. "What about this?"

She shrugged. "Oh, that's exoglass. You'd need a nuclear bomb to get through."

"Don't tempt me."

That made her smile a little, before glancing at the camera and back. "I know you're not supposed to talk about the outside world, but you must've been watching. Do people like me?" Well, she seemed alright at the moment, quite sweet. "Lynda. Lynda with a Y, not Linda with an I. She got forcibly evicted because she damaged the camera." Made a note of that, it got me intrigued. "'Am I popular?"

There was no way to let her down gently. "I don't remember."

Her face fell. "Oh, but does that mean I'm nothing?" No one is nothing. "Some people get this far just because they're insignificant. Doesn't anybody notice me?"

"No, you're, you're nice. You're sweet. Everybody thinks you're sweet." I smiled, looking at her for a moment.

Lynda smiled. "Oh, is that right? Is that what I am? Oh, no one's ever told me that before. Am I sweet? Really?"

"Yeah. Dead sweet."

"Thank you."

"It's a wall. Isn't there supposed to be a garden out there or something?"

Now she was looking at me like I was mad. "Don't be daft. No one's got a garden anymore. Who's got a garden?" She gasped, moving quickly after me. "Don't tell me you've got a garden."

"No, I've just got the TARDIS." The TARDIS! "I remember."

"That's the amnesia!" Lynda grinned. "So what happened? Where did they get you?"

"We'd just left Raxacoriofallapatorius. Then we went to Kyoto. That's right, Japan in 1336, and we only just escaped. We were together, we were laughing, and then there was this light. This white light coming through the walls, and then. And then I woke up here."

The girl nodded. "'Yeah, that's the transmat beam. That's how they pick the housemates."

"Oh, Lynda with a Y. Sweet little Lynda. It's worse than at. I'm not just a passing traveller. No stupid little transmat gets inside my ship. That beam was fifteen million times more powerful, which means this isn't just a game. There's something else going on."' I looked at one of the Eyes on the walls, which we all knew were cameras. "Well, here's the latest update from the Big Brother house. I'm getting out. I'm going to find my daughter and my friends, and then I'm going to find you."

And I kept working before we were all called to the sofa, and even then, I kept working, getting a look from my 'housemates'. "Doctor, they said all the housemates must gather on the sofa. You've got to."

I did what I wanted, when I wanted, thanks. "I'm busy getting out, thanks."

Lynda kept pushing. "But if you don't obey, then all the housemates get punished."

"Well, maybe I'll be voted out, then." Wishful thinking. I hated reality tv.

Strood rolled his eyes and I felt like punching him. "How stupid are you? You've only just joined, you're not eligible."

"Don't try anything clever or we all get it in the neck."'

And then a computer voice came overhead, and it sounded like the stupid thin woman, Davina something or other as I sat down, bored. "Big Brother House this is, Davina Droid. Crosbie, Lynda and Strood, you have all been nominated for eviction. And the eighth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House is." Insert too long dramatic pause here. "Crosbie!"

"I'm sorry! Oh, I'm sorry! Sorry!"' Lynda said over and over, hugging her tight.

And Strood did the same, even though I could see the relief that it wasn't him. "Oh, it should've been me. Oh, that's not fair, Crosbie love."

The Davina voice came back. "Crosbie, you have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you." There was then a lot of heartfelt goodbyes, not. "Crosbie, please leave the Big Brother House."

A door to a short white corridor opened, with another door at the far end. Well, that was simple enough. "Bye, then. Bye, Lynda."

Crosbie and Lynda made an arch, and Crosbie walked through. "I don't believe it. Crosbie."

"It's only a game show." I reminded them, and they all looked at me. "She'll make a fortune on the outside. Sell her story, release a record, fitness video, all of that. she'll be laughing."

"What do you mean, on the outside?" Lynda asked me.

"Here we go."

Lynda and Strood ran back to the sofa to watch Crosbie on the screen, where I was still waiting. "What are they waiting for? Why don't they just let her go?"

"stop it, it's not funny."

Davina droid started talking again. "Eviction in five, four, three, two, one."

A beam came down from the ceiling and hit Crosbie. After a few moments, she vanished in a puff of smoke. Now my attention was completely on end. "What was that?"

"Disintegrator beam."

Lynda was full of tears. "She's been evicted. From life."

I started pacing, furious with the whole idea. This was ridiculous, all this just for a bit of fame, for getting that little bit of money. "Are you insane? You just step right into the disintegrator? Is it that important, getting your face on the telly? Is it worth dying for?"

"You're talking like we've got a choice!"

Wait, what? "But I thought you had to apply."

"Don't be so stupid. That's how they played it centuries back. The one rule is that you have to be 18 to play any of the games." Jace... 3 years, luckily, but where was she?

Lynda gave me a long hard look. "You get chosen whether you like it or not. Everyone on Earth is a potential contestant. The transmat beam picks you out at random. And it's non stop. There are sixty Big Brother houses running all at once."

This was beyond ridiculous. "How many? Sixty?"

"They've had to cut back. It's not what it was."

Oh, I'd say they should cut back completely, it was televised execution because on the whim of some voting member of the public, someone was selected to die. "It's a charnel house! What about the winners? What do they get?"

"They get to live."

Come on! "Is that it?"

"Well, isn't that enough?"

"Jace is out there, my 15 year old daughter. She got caught in the transmat. She's a contestant, or something, because if she's not old enough, what would they do to with her?" They looked blankly at me. "Time I got out. That other contestant, er, Linda with an I. She was forcibly evicted for what?"

Lynda frowned. "Damage to property."

I smiled and got out the sonic again. "What, like this?" And then the camera was in pieces. Fantastic.

Then I paced for about 10 minutes before the Davina voice came back. "The Doctor, you've broken the House Rules. Big Brother has no choice but to evict you. You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you!"

"That's more like it. Come on, then. Open up!" I shouted, running right to the door.

The girl and boy stared at me in disbelief. "You're mad! It's like you want to die."

"I reckon he's a plant." Strood said smugly. "He was only brought in to stir things up." Yeah, because that was the real reason.

"The Doctor, please leave the Big Brother house."

I ran right in, still shouting at it. "Come on then, disintegrate me! Come on, what're you waiting for?" It was taking forever, and I had a 15 year old to find. "Disintegrate me. What are you waiting for?"

"Eviction in five, four, three, two, one."

The machine shut down. "Ah, ha! I knew it! You see, someone brought me into this game. If they'd wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano, and they'd have left Jacey alone. They want me alive!" Then I started to scan the next door. "Maybe security isn't as tight this end. Are you following this? I'm getting out!" I opened the far door and then Lynda opened the one into the main house. "Come with me."

"We're not allowed!" Strood shouted, and I wanted to hit him.

But Lynda, oh, Lynda... "Stay in there, you've got a fifty fifty chance of disintegration. Stay with me, I promise I'll get you out alive. Come on!"

"No, I can't. I can't."

"Lynda, you're sweet." I told her again, really, truly meaning it. "From what I've seen of your world, do you think anyone votes for sweet?" I held out my hand, and Lynda took it and we ran out into, into somewhere I really remembered. "Hold on. I've been here before. This is Satellite Five. No guards. That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth."

I opened another door and we went through. "No one's called it Satellite Five in ages." Lynda told me, looking around at the size of the place. "It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."

"A hundred years exactly." I remarked, looking at a com panel. "It's the year two zero zero one zero zero. I was here before, Floor one three nine. The Satellite was broadcasting news channels back then. Had a bit of trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy. Gave them a hand, home in time for tea, well, to make Jace eat tea." Getting that girl to eat more than a banana was like pulling teeth, but she was slowly putting on weight.

The girl was staring at me. "A hundred years ago? What, you were here a hundred years ago? With your 15 year old daughter."

"Yep!"

She blinked but left it. "You're looking good on it."

Oh, it was too tempting. "I moisturise. Funny sorts of readings. All kinds of energy. The place is humming. It's weird. This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?"

"I don't know." Lyn admitted. "I think we're the first ever contestants to get outside."

"I had two friends travelling with me, as well as Jacey. They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. They could've been allocated anywhere. There's a hundred different games. And none can be played by anyone under the age of 18, because we haven't reached maturity by that point." And Jace wouldn't really until she was around 75.

"Like what? What came?"

Lynda thought for a moment. "Well, there's ten floors of Big Brother. There's a different House behind each of those doors. And then beyond that, there's all sorts of shows. It's non stop. There's Call My Bluff, with real guns." Gross. "Countdown, where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off." Just join the army. "Ground Force, which is a nasty one. You get turned into compost." Become a gardener. "Er, Wipeout, speaks for itself." Lovely. "Oh, and Stars In Their Eyes. Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded." Crap, if Jace was there... She'd lose everything that was her, her synesthesia.

"And you watch this stuff?"

"Everyone does." She shrugged. "How come you don't?"

Easy one there. "Never paid for my licence."

Her hands went right to her mouth in shock. "Oh, my God! You get executed for that."

"Let them try." I grinned, holding up my trusty sonic screwdriver, which was a bit redundant now Jace could control sound, but hey.

Lynda shook her head a little. "You keep saying things that don't make sense. Who are you though, Doctor, really?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Well, it does to me. I've just put my life in your hands." Ah, guilting me into it, brilliant.

"I'm just a traveller, wandering past. Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life. I didn't even expect Jace, she, she just sort of happened. I didn't know I had a daughter, not until recently."

"So, if we get out of here, what're you going to do? Just wander off again? Look after Jace?"

I nodded. "Fast as I can."

Lynda hesitated for a moment. "So, I could come with you?"

"Maybe you could." I smiled.

"I wouldn't get in the way." This girl was absolutely lovely, I'd love to have her with us.

"I wouldn't mind if you did. Not a bad idea, Lynda with a Y." I grinned up at her, then got to my feet. "But first of all, we've got to concentrate on the getting out. And to do that, you've got to know your enemy. Who's controlling it? Who's in charge of the satellite now?"

"Hold on." She ran over to a light breaker and turned it on, bringing up a massive sign in lights. Bad Wolf Corporation. That same phrase, ever since we picked up Jace, following us and following us, and she'd even drawn one a few times, a wolf that had been following her. "Your lords and masters." Or maybe my daughters.

DW

We moved on and got onto a massive viewing platform, the same one that Adam had passed out on, and Lynda was dead impressed. "Blimey! I've never seen it for real before. Not from orbit. Planet Earth."

"What's happened to it?" I asked her, seeing that it was coated in thick smog, and pollutants, and everything was wrong with it, like the planet was dying, being choked from it's own fumes.

She shrugged. "Well, it's always been like that. Ever since I was born. See that there? That's the Great Atlantic Smog Storm. It's been going twenty years. We get newsflashes telling us when it's safe to breath outside." So it was being choked by its own fumes, great.

"So the population just sits there? Half the world's too fat, and half the world's too thin, and you lot just watch telly?"

Now she nodded. "Ten thousand channels, all beaming down from here."

This was beyond stupid. They were zombies, just following the latest trend! "The Human Race. Brainless sheep being fed on a diet of." Then I had a thought. "Mind you, have they still got that programme where three people have to live with a bear?"

"Oh, Bear With Me. I love that one!"

"And me. The celebrity edition where the bear got in the bath." I laughed, then went serious again. "But it's all gone wrong. I mean, history's gone wrong again. This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. I don't understand. Last time I was here I put it right."

"No, but that's when it first went wrong." Lynda told me. "A hundred years ago, like you said. All the news channels, they just shut down overnight."

I nodded, knowing that much. "But that was me. I did that. Me and Jace."

"There was nothing left in their place." What? "No information. The whole planet just froze. The government, the economy, they collapsed. That was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."

"Oh, my." I breathed, starting to go through some giant harddrive. "I made this world."

I kept working for a while, when Jace turned up, in a completely new wardrobe so obviously he was on a clothes programme. "Hey, handsome. Good to see you? Any sign of Jacey or Rose?"

"Can't you track her down? I'm working on my daughter."

He looked through his vortex manipulator, that I made sure didn't really work. The sonic noise it emitted would have constantly given the sound sensitive one a migraine. "She must still be inside the games. All the rooms are shielded. And Jace must be the same, she's only got one heart so I can't find her."

Shaking my head, I stood up. "She has two. The second heart doesn't start beating until you're 21, when your ageing slows. If I can just get inside this computer. She's got to be here somewhere."

"Well, you'd better hurry up. These games don't have a happy ending."

"Do you think I don't know that?" I glared, knowing full well they could both be dead already.

Jack handed over his wrist computer. "There you go, patch that in. It's programmed to find her."

"Thanks." Then he started flirting with Lynda. More than a little distracting. "Do you mind flirting outside?"

"I was just saying hello!"

And? "For you, that's flirting." Then I hit the side of the panel, not getting through anything. I needed Jace, to be able to find Jace. She could see what wires did what by their direction, their colours, and she could change it. I'd been teaching her. "It's not compatible. This stupid system doesn't make sense." I threw the VM to Lynda and kicked the console as Jack took off the front plate. "This place should be a basic broadcaster, but the systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television. This station's transmitting something else."

That got Jack worried. "Like what?"

"I don't know. This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me and Jace. Someone's manipulated her entire life, like they were making bad things happen so I'd find her. It's some sort of trap and Jace and Rose are stuck inside it." I kept working, trying furiously to find at least one of them, and eventually I did. "Found Rose. Floor four oh seven."

Lynda gasped. "Oh, my God, she's with the Anne Droid. You've got to get her out of there."

And then we were running, all of us, getting in the lift and I sonicked it to go at rocket speeds. "Come on, come on.!" I ran out again after, looking at all the doors. "Game Room Six, which one is it??"

"Over here!" Lynda called and I ran to the door panel, trying to get it open.

Jack hefted his home made gun. "Stand back, let me blast it open."

"You can't. it's made of Hydra combination." It was going too slow! "Come on, come on, come on." And then it opened. "Rose! Stop this game!"

But it was still going, and she'd just lost. "Rose, you leave this life with nothing."

"I order you to stop this game!" She ran towards us, but was shot just before she reached us. And then I felt empty, so, so empty.

I just let the guards drag me out, through the process of questioning, mug shots, and then we were just moved into a room. If Rose was gone, what hope did I have of my little street girl, my amazing Jace? But I had to keep trying. "Let's do it." I told Jack, and he lead the fight out, knocking two guards out and I threw one into the wall before I grabbed the sonic and headed out, going for the control deck. "Floor 500."

"Okay, move away from the desk!" Jack shouted, getting all the staff together in the right place. "Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clear. Stand to the side and stay there."

"Who's in charge of this place?" I asked a girl who was wired into something, and she looked in pain. "This Satellite's more than a Game Station." The girl kept counting. "Who killed Rose Tyler? Where is my daughter, where is Jaclyn Smith?!"

"All staff are reminded that solar flares-"

Could she not hear me? "I want an answer!"

"Occur in delta point one."

"She can't reply." A man said, and I turned to face him, still holding the gun. "Don't shoot!"

I rolled my eyes and threw it at him. "Oh, don't be so thick. Like I was ever going to shoot." A proximity alarm went off. "Captain, we've got more guards on the way up. Secure the exits."

He nodded. "Yes, sir."

"You." Back to the guy holding my gun. "What were you saying?"

This guy was a blubbering idiot. "But I've got your gun."

And? "Okay, so shoot me. Why can't she answer?"

"She's er. Can I put this down?"

Come on! "If you want. Just hurry up."

"Thanks." He put it down, looking relieved. "Sorry. The Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain. You're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognise your existence."

"What's her name?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. She was installed when she was five years old. That's the only life she's ever known." Oh the poor thing. All those numbers.

Jack called over from the panels. "Door's sealed. We should be safe for about ten minutes."

"Keep an eye on them." I spotted a door I wanted a look at, feeling something tugging me towards it and went over, carefully scanning the door. It was humming with even more energy, sonic energy. Jace.

A worker shook her head. "That door's broken, it doesn't open." But I shot her a silencing look.

Opening it, I saw that she was huddled in a corner, her eyes red rimmed and she was shaking. "Doctor!" She cried, leaping right up and hugging me tight and I picked her up, checking her over and kissed her long blond curls. "I, I was so scared, I couldn't hear anything, this, this room... it's shut off... I was alone, and I thought you were gone..."

"I'm here... I've got you Jace... My Jace..." I wiped her eyes and pulled her out, letting her wear my jacket again, trying to stop her shivering. "Jack! I've got her, she's alright!"

Jack grinned and hugged the girl quickly before nodding. "She's too young, didn't want the attention of putting a 15 year old in. Hey, you're good, Jacey Moo."

"That stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station." A worker said quickly, and I looked around at the guy who'd told me about the Controller. "I think you're right. I've kept a log. Unauthorised transmats, encrypted signals, it's been going on for years."

"Show me."

One of the women stepped forward. "If you're not holding us hostage, then open the door and let us out. The staff are terrified."

I raised an eyebrow, holding my daughter close as she shook. "That's the same staff who execute hundreds of contestants every day."

"That's not our fault." She protested. "We're just doing our jobs."

"And with that sentence you just lost the right to even talk to me. Now back off!"

And then the power dropped, and Pavale stepped forward. "That's just the solar flares. They interfere with the broadcast signal, so this place automatically powers down. Planet Earth gets a few repeats. It's all quite normal."

"Doctor. Jace."

"Doctor?" The woman said, and we didn't look her way.

"Whatever it is, you can wait."

But she kept pushing. "I think she wants you."

"Doctor and Jace? Doctor? Jace? Where's the Doctor and the Seer?" What? Seriously? The Controller knew her name.

I pulled her forward and stood in front of the woman. "We're here."'

"Can't see. I'm blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw you. The both of you."

Jace sniffed, wiping her eyes. "What do you want?"

The girl was still staring sightlessly, but I had a feeling she could see us, even if she was unfocused. "Solar flares hiding me. They can't hear me. My masters, they always listen but they can't hear me now the sun, the sun is so bright."

"Who are your masters?"

"They wired my head."' She told us, evading the question. "The name's forbidden. They control my thoughts. My masters. My masters, I had to be careful. They monitor transmissions but they don't watch the programmes. I could hide you inside the games, inside a room without signal, a Faraday Cage."' Why Jace lost the colours, nothing could get in. "Knew that you would find me."

I glared at her though, thinking about Rose. "My friend died inside your games. And that room hurt Jace." My Jace stared at me though, looking desperately for Rose, but she was gone.

"Doesn't matter."

That made me lower my voice and growl. "Don't you dare tell me that."

"They've been hiding. My masters hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth so, so, so many years. Always been there, guiding humanity, hundreds and hundred of years."

Jace's anger broke, making her shout. "'Who are they?!"

But the girl was just going. "They wait and plan and grow in numbers. They're strong now. So strong, my masters." We asked again, but she still didn't reply. "But speak of you, my masters, they fear the Doctor. Of the daughter of colour."' That was a good name for her.

"Tell us, who are they?" But then the power came back on and she started counting again. "When's the next solar flare?"

Pavale was the one who answered. "Two years time."

Jace sighed, hugging her arms around herself. "'Fat lot of good that is."

"Found the TARDIS." Jack called, running back out from a room.

My little girl shook her head. "We're not leaving now."

"No, but the TARDIS worked it out. You'll want to watch this. Jace, could you stand over there for me please?" She hesitated, and I didn't want her out of my sight for the moment. "It'll only take a second. Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can. Everybody watching? Okay. three, two, one."

And then he shot the disintegrator beam at her, and she vanished in a puff of smoke. "You killed her!" I screamed, going for him, but he hit another button and she appeared a few meters down, disorientated. "Jace!"

She shook her head, and I caught her before she fell, hugging her. "What the hell was that? Doctor?"

"It's a transmat beam. Not a disintegrator, a secondary transmat system. People don't get killed in the games. they get transported across space." Jacks face lit up. "Doctor, Jace, Rose is still alive!"

We all hugged, and Jace smiled for the first time since I found her. "She's out there somewhere."

"Doctor, Seer." We looked at the Controller. "Coordinates five point six point one"

What? What was she doing? "Don't, the solar flare's gone. They'll hear you!"

"Point four three four. No, my masters, no! I defy you! Stigma seven seven" And then she was gone.

Jace stared, her eyes bright and blue, like the ocean on a summers day. "They took her."

And then we got into working out the rest of the transmissions. "Look, use that. It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

Jack smiled at the man, and held out his hand. "Nice, Thanks. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way."

"I'm Davitch Pavale."

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale."

Jace rolled her eyes. "There's a time and a place."

The random woman got our attention. "Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?"

"Going way back. Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago." I agreed, my daughter moving to sit on my lap as she used her hands as a sonic, little bursts of coloured light coming off them. My smart girl. "Someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."

Then Jace found something, moving her hands away, though they were still emit a low sonic noise. "Click on this. The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system."

"There's nothing there."

But I saw what she meant. "It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission there's another signal. Jace can feel it, see it. She can see any signal or sound."

Pavale frowned. "Doing what?"

I shrugged. "Hiding whatever's out there." I kissed Jace's hair, still so happy she was safe, and that we had a chance at getting Rose back. "Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal..."

A large flying saucer appeared on the holo-viewscreen. Jace zoomed out to reveal a lot, lot more of them, and I was glad that she didn't recognise them, recognise the ships that destroyed the planet that was half hers, but they would forever be seared on her heart, hearts.

"That's impossible." Jack told me, and I knew he must know them too. "I know those ships. They were destroyed."

Jacey frowned and looked up at me, and I stroked her cheek. "Obviously, they survived. Jace, you're so young..."

"Who did?" Lynda asked, and I'd almost forgotten she was there, she'd been so quiet. "Who are they?"

"Two hundred ships. More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them." Jace's eyes got bigger and bluer as she recognised the tone in my voice, the same way I'd spoken about the last one.

"Daleks?" She whispered, and I nodded as the screen was hijacked, showing a Dalek.

"I will talk to the Doctor."

Calm, turn the rage into sarcasm. "Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello!"

" The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

Jace raised an eyebrow, then clicked her knuckles. That was my pet hate, but oh well. "Oh, really? Why's that, then? I'm Jace by the way. The Doctor's daughter."

They paused for a moment. "We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated."

"No."

Everyone looked at us as we spoke together, both having the same thought. "Explain yourself."

"We said no."

The Daleks were confused. "What is the meaning of this negative?"

Jace shrugged again. "It means no."

"But she will be destroyed."

"No!" I shouted, getting to my feet with her and holding her close. "Because this is what we're going to do. We're going to rescue her. We're going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then we're going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky as a late birthday present to my daughter!"

"But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan."

We both smirked. "Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death. Rose?"

She lifted her head a little. "Yes, Doctor, Jacey?"

"We're coming to get you."

And then we went right to the TARDIS, Jace working the controls, her blue eyes furious as she went. Oh, my little girl... But Jack and I were working on the extrapolator, getting it up just in time "We've got incoming!"

"The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield." Jack paused, grinning at my Jacey. "Try saying that when you're drunk."

Smiling, I kissed her head as I passed her, taking over the reins. "And for my next trick." We materialised around Rose, and Jace yelped as she saw the Dalek too, making me leap to action. "Rose, get down! Get down, Rose!"

It fired and missed, before Jack took it out with his modded gun. "You did it. Feels like I haven't seem you in years." Rose breathed as Jacey hugged her tight, like she wouldn't let go. They were so close, it wouldn't be fair to take them away from each other.

"I told you I'd come and get you." I grinned, hugging her next, my arm proudly on my daughters shoulder. She may not call me dad, or even like being part Time Lord, but no matter what, she was everything to me and I wouldn't change her at all.

"Never doubted it."

Jacey gave a little smile, letting me wrap an arm around her and hugging me. "I did. You all right?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Not bad, been better." She shivered. "Got locked in a Faraday Cage for about 6 hours, and trust me, that is not fun when you see sound,"

Then Jack called over. "Hey, don't I get a hug?"

"Oh, come here!"

"I was talking to her, the cute one." But he hugged Rose anyway. "Welcome home."

She smiled, hugging and holding on. "Oh, I thought I'd never see you again."

"Oh, you were lucky. That was just a one shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."

And then Rose looked at me. "You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive?"

"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space." The Captain pointed out, and even Jace looked at me, her beautiful blue eyes filled with worry.

"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War" Jack stared. "I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake." I looked solely at Jace, telling her part of her history. "My, our people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."

Her voice was barely a whisper as her adrenaline started fading. "There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"

"No good stood round here chin wagging, love." I smiled, kissing her hair before leading her out. "The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbours."

They all shot at us on sight, but the shield was still up, going out a good three metres, making me grin. "Is that it? Useless! Nul points. It's all right, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything."

"Almost anything."

I didn't even look at the imbecile. "Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks. Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me and my daughter? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"

"They survived through me." I looked over to see something I really wished to never see, never again after it had my wife executed, and broadcast it. Our best weapons developer. Elina...

"Jaclyn, Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

Jace narrowed her eyes, and I saw her turn the colours off. "we get it."

The rest of the Daleks told us to button it. "I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me, and my daughter is just the same. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you! Okey doke. So, where were we?"

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

That... That was horrific. "So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead."

"That makes them half human." Rose pointed out, and they didn't like that.

"'Those words are blasphemy."' The other Daleks echoed. "Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

This wasn't good. "Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"

"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!"

I moved Jace behind me, backing towards the TARDIS. "They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever. We're going."

But they didn't like that and we had to strengthen the shield before getting back to Floor 500, where the walls were made of gold. "Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!" Jace shouted, getting to work herself, just touching things to get them to work. Sonic.

"'What does this do?" They still had to question her?

"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"

He seemed dejected. "Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."

Oh, this wasn't good. "And the planet's just sitting there, defenceless." I spotted a familiar girl. "Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go."

"Didn't want to leave you and Jace."

But then the woman who refused to say her name spoke up. "There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

Then fleet started moving towards us, leaving me no choice. "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"

"You've got to be kidding."

I beamed at Jack. "Give the man a medal."

"A Delta Wave!"

"'What's a Delta Wave?"' Rose asked, while Jace was still blocking a lot of things, boosting shields.

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed."

I nodded, pausing for a moment. "And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!"

Lynda grinned at me. "'Well, get started and do it then."

"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days?" I glanced at my daughter, still working on something. "How long till the Fleet arrive, Jay?"

"Twenty two minutes."

Shit.

I got to work, and she turned around a little later, clicking her fingers again. "We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."

Pavale frowned. "Do they know about the Delta Wave?"

"They'll have worked it out at the same time." Jack said, shrugging a little. "So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."

"Who are they fighting?"

Jace smiled a little. "Us." Not a chance in hell, you were staying where I could see you.

"And what are we fighting with?"

Jack knew that one. "The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."

"There's 6 of us."

And Rose wasn't going either. "Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare. Jace, you're 15, and the only one who can keep ramping up the power on the shield."

"Right, now there's four of us."

"Then let's move it. Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls." Pavale and the woman headed out, Lynda following. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye."

Jace hugged him, and I didn't think she'd let go. "Don't talk like that. The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."

"Jacey Moo Smith, you are worth fighting for, my amazing little friend." He kissed her forehead, wiping away a tear. "Be good." Then he looked at Rose. "Thanks for the view, Rose." He kissed her, before moving to me. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." And now I got a kiss. "See you in hell."

He left and my daughter looked at me. "He's going to be all right, isn't he?" But I couldn't say. Because I didn't know.

DW

"Suppose." Rose said after a little while, when Jace had gone around and started building up power where I told her to.

"'What?"

"Nothing." Pause. "No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"

Oh, I wished it was that simple. "As soon as the TARDIS lands in that second, I become part of events, stuck in the timeline."

"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that"

But then there was a though, a way to ensure my little girl saw another dawn. "There's another thing the TARDIS could do. It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

"Yeah, but you'd never do that."

She was listening, not that it surprised me. She was a colourful Magpie, she was drawn to it. "No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it? To be selfish just this once."

"Well, I'm just too good."

The machine beeped. "Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" Jace pointed to a console and I ran over before sighing. And made a decision. "Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the Tardis to cross my old timeline. Yes!" I ran into the TARDIS and they both followed. "Hold that down and keep position. Jace, listen to what the TARDIS tells you."

"What's it do?" Rose asked, as Jace started moving around, but the console was off.

I smiled, looking at how beautiful my little girl was, and knowing that I was doing the right thing for her. "Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart"

"I'd go for the first one." She laughed, her eyes lighting up a little.

"Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!" I ran out, stopping in the midst of my tangle of cable, looking back at the TARDIS. And then sent them home.

I got back to work, but not even Jack telling me it was the right thing to do could help me, thinking of her being raised by Mickey, or Jackie, instead of following what she was comfortable doing of her own people. That and the Delta Wave would have killed her. And he still trusted me, though I was killing the Earth.

But there was something else that I needed to ask the 'God of all Daleks'. "Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in, but only since I found Jace, and she's been seeing it for even longer. How'd you manage that?"

"I did nothing." Now was not the time to be modest.

"Oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship."

But he was still denying it. "They are not part of my design. This is the Truth of God."' Bad Wolf...

I blocked them out, and kept working. But they breached Jace's shield eventually, though she wouldn't know it took them another 10 minutes to just work out the colour frequencies, before taking 5 to shatter it. Because she was amazing, and there was nothing she couldn't do. "Jack, how're we doing?"

"Four nine five should be good. I like four nine five."' Anne Robinson as a robot. Well, she was already mostly plastic. She may as well be an auton.

And then Lynda came through, telling me that everyone on floor zero was dead. "Lynda! What's happening on Earth?"

"The Fleet's descending."' She told me, and it sounded like she was crying. "They're bombing whole continents. Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance. Australasia's just gone." There was a pause. "I've got a problem. They've found me."

No, no... I've already lost Jace and Rose, not Lynda... "You'll be all right, Lynda. That side of the station's reinforced against meteors."

"Hope so!" The girl laughed a little through her tears. "You know what they say about Earth workmanship."

But it didn't work and they got her. And she screamed, just once, before she was gone too. And Jack was the only one left. "Last man standing! For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!"

"Finish that thing and kill mankind." The Emperor mocked.

"Doctor, you've got twenty seconds maximum!" And then he was gone too. I was glad Jace wasn't here.

"It's ready!"' Just as I was surrounded by Dalek's. "You really want to think about this, because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies."

"I am immortal."

Nothing was. "Do you want to put that to the test?"

There was a small amount of glee in his voice. "I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator. Where is your daughter to see you kill like you killed your people?"

"I'll do it!" I warned, but I knew I couldn't, not knowing Jace would think of me in the wrong way. I wasn't a hero, I was a killer, and she deserved better than me.

"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?"

I couldn't throw the final switch. "Coward. Any day. A cowardly father who loves his little girl."

"Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness."'

Shaking my head, I dropped the trigger. "And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?"

But I wasn't even that. "You are the heathen. You will be exterminated."

"Maybe it's time."' I closed my eyes, but something incredible was happening. The TARDIS.

I turned to see it, and the doors opened showing my little girl, standing silhouetted by golden light, snaked with her colours, her eyes just like how Rose drew them on her birthday card, and her voice was humming around her, singing in scarlet waves. "What've you done?"

"I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me."

But that was only the half of it. "You looked into the Time Vortex. Calliope, no one's meant to see that."

The Daleks shot at her out of fear, but her hand stopped it, the colours ebbing into her, before smiling, just a little. "'I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here, to the alley where the Doctor first saw me, and before that to keep myself from harm."

"Jacey, you've got to stop this." I told her. "You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."

Her eyes found mine, burning blue through the gold. "I want you safe. My Dad. Protected from the false god." Dad...

The Emperor was still smug over himself. "'You cannot hurt me. I am immortal."

"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every sound and every thing. Every single atom of your existence and the energy holding together, and I divide them, cancelling out the wave." The Daleks started disintegrating in small bursts of colour, the energy holding them together fading out. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."

"I will not die. I cannot die!" But then he was gone too, leaving just us.

"My Jace, Calliope, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."

Tears trickled down her face and I wanted to wipe them away, but her skin was too hot to touch. "How can I let go of this? I bring life."

"But this is wrong!" I told her, my hearts breaking as I knew what I had to do. "You can't control life and death."

She shook her head. "But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?"

"The power's going to kill you and it's my fault."

Her eyes burned through so many colours before staying their usual blue. "I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be, its so much more than it was, the colours are attacking me, every sound... it hurts, daddy..."

"That's what I see, my baby girl." I smiled, so glad that I had her. "All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad? Come here."

"It's killing me." She cried.

I took her in my arms, holding her so close and absorbed the energy, and her eyes closed. "I think you need your dad." Holding her like a baby, I took her pain, took her breakages, and watched her skin heal completely, no scars, and no mis-healed bones. And then, I let go of the energy.

She slept for a while in the TARDIS, and I knew that Rose was probably panicking back on Earth. But I needed my daughter to understand who we were, why our race were so mighty. And then there was a small gasp as she sat up from the jump seat, looking at me. "What happened? Doctor?"

"Don't you remember?" I asked, a little upset that dad had gone again.

Her blue eyes frowned, darkening a little. "It's like there was this singing. M, my voice, red and powerful."

Close to the truth. "That's right. You sang a song and the Daleks ran away."

"I was at Rose's. No, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS, home, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else"

I looked at my skin, slowly darkening. "Jace Smith, Calliope. I was going take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny."

She smiled at me, getting to her feet. "Then, why can't we go?"

"Maybe you will, and maybe I will." I laughed, shaking my head. "But not like this."

That made her confused. "You're not making sense. Doctor, what are you saying?"

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement, because I will still ground you." That made her smile a little. "But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with-" I doubled over in pain.

"Dad!"

Backing away, I sent her a warning look. "Stay away!"

Her eyes filled with tears again. "Dad, tell me what's going on."

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying."

"Can't you do something? Dad, please..." She was so scared, my little Jace.

I nodded at her, ready to explain. "Yeah, I'm doing it now. Us Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go-"

"Don't say that."

But I had to, because I wouldn't see her again, my little girl. "Calliope, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I." And then I was gone, but I was still me. I was the Doctor, my body was taller, thinner. I could feel my body changing. "Hello. Okay. Ooo, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona."


	12. A Christmas Gift

Jace:

The Doctor, my dad, whoever he was opened the door, still in t-shirt and I had on the leather jacket. I could hear him talking to all of them, before collapsing and I ran out into Rose's arms, letting her hug me so tight. "What happened? Is he all right?" She held me at arms length. "Jace, Jacey, where's the Doctor?"

"That's him, right in front of you. That's the Doctor. That's my dad." I told her, looking down at the man, hugging the leather jacket to myself, smelling time and stories.

Jackie stared at me, before hugging me and looking down at him. "What do you mean, Jace, that's the Doctor? Doctor who?"

We got him back up to the flat, where I was dressed in some of Rose's hand me downs, though I refused to take the jacket off, which appeared to be slowly shrinking, fitting me better and better, and I changed dad into some pyjamas. And Jackie came back with a stethoscope. "Here we go. Tina the cleaner's got this lodger, a medical student, and she was fast asleep, so I just took it. Though I still say we should take him to hospital, and you Jace, your temperature is too low."

"We can't." Rose told her, sitting the other side of the bed as I checked his hearts, something I'd have too. We'd checked. "They'd lock them up. They'd dissect them. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race, and Jace is a little under half human." She made to protest but I was getting frustrated and Rose knew it. "No! Shush!"

I listened to both sides of dads chest, before smiling a little. "Both working."

"What do you mean, both?"

"Well, he's got two hearts." I shrugged, getting to my feet and putting the stethoscope around my neck. It was only a courtesy, I could easily turn on my colours and see his hearts, but I didn't want to. This hurt. My dad, the man who was really my dad, he was gone. He died to save me. "I have two as well."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be stupid."

"They have, mum. Leave her alone."

I started digging through the fridge, just doing anything to fight back the tears and to not look at Rose or Jackie. "How can he go changing his face? Is that a different face or is he a different person?" The mum asked me, and I grabbed a banana, still trying not to think, but I remembered when we first met Jack, how I swapped a banana for his blaster. Villengard.

"How should I know? Sorry. The thing is I thought I knew him, Rose, Jackie.,. I thought me and him were, he was my dad, I had a dad. And then he goes and does this." I pressed the heel of my hand hard into my eyes to stop myself from crying "I keep forgetting he's not human, that I'm not human." Then I looked at Rose. "The big question is where'd you get a pair of men's pyjamas from?"

The girl blushed scarlet. "Mickey's been staying over."

That made me grin, eating a small bite of my banana. "How long's that been going on? He adores you, Rose.

"A month or so." She smiled, but then I walked into the living room.

"Why is Harriet Jones on the telly?"

Jackie smiled. "She's Prime Minister now. I'm eighteen quid a week better off. They're calling it Britain's Golden Age. I keep on saying my Rose and her Jace have met her."

Rose grinned, giving me a hug. "Did more than that. Stopped World War Three with her. Harriet Jones. " They were talking about a space probe that was about to go and see Mars. Meh, there were prettier planets.

Then it was just Jackie and I in the house, because I refused to go Christmas shopping with Rose and Mickey, because if dad woke up and I wasn't there he'd probably panic, so I just lay on the end of the bed with him, falling asleep.

That was until they all burst into the room, running from something. "No, leave him. Just leave him! Grab Jace and get out!" Jackie was shouting as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Jace, come on, run!"

"Get in here!" I shouted, just as the weird music hit me, all in the wrong key, but definitely not right in more than that why as the tree was trying to kill us. "Dad, wake up! I don't know how to stop this, you haven't taught me yet!" The tree smashed through the door and I yelped as splinters hit me. I got thrown back before moving to his ear. "Dad, I'm scared, please."

I'd barely got I'm scared out before he sat up, aiming the sonic he got from my newly size 14 jacket, and making it explode. "Remote control. But who's controlling it?" He then fussed over me, wiping away the small specks of blood before leading us out to the balcony. Down on the ground, three Santa's gazed up, one holding a radio controller.

"That's them." Mickey pointed. "What are they?" Rose shushed him as I raised a hand at them, making them back away before being teleported. "'They've just gone. What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offence, but they're not much cop if Jace raising a hand at them is going to scare them off."

I then showed him what I could do with my hands, aiming a sonic blast a skip that dented. "I'm capable of discharging a sonic pulse at the same level of breaking the sound barrier."

"Pilot fish."

We all looked at dad. "What?"

"They were just pilot fish." And then he was back in pain, making me grab him, helping lower him to the ground.

"Dad? What's wrong? Tell me, please..."

He stroked my face a little, letting me press my cheek into his softer, bigger hands. "You woke me up too soon, my Jace. I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." He exhaled golden energy that reminded me of his change. "You see? The pilot fish could smell it a million miles away. So they eliminate the defence, that's you lot, and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of ow!"

And then he was trying to get in a word around what Jackie was saying, which was pretty much everything under the sun in one breath, painkillers, food, and some other random stuff. "I need you to shut up."

"Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?"

Dad shook his head, cuddling me with what little strength he had. "We haven't got much time. If there's pilot fish, then." He pulled something out of his pocket. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"

Mickey looked sheepish. "Oh, that's mine. Sorry."

"You keep apples in your dressing gown?"

"He gets hungry." Rose blushed, and this was really off topic

"What, he gets hungry in his sleep?"

Mickey shrugged. "Sometimes."

Then he cried out in pain again and I wanted to do something, to help him. "Argh! Brain collapsing. The pilot fish. The pilot fish mean that something, something, something is coming." And then he passed out again.

We put him back into bed and I still refused to leave his side, so Mickey physically dragged me to sit with them in the living room to sit with him as Rose sat with him for a while. "Jackie, I'm using the phone line. Is that all right?"

"Yeah. Keep a count of it." Like you could talk. "It's midnight. Christmas day."

Rose came out of his room and I looked at her. "Any change?"

"He's worse." She told me. "Just one heart beating." Oh god...

The news was talking about how they lost sight of their probe for a moment earlier, which was pretty boring, and all I wanted was my dad, the Doctor, the real Doctor, to take me home. But he couldn't. "Here we go, pilot fish." Mickey said after a moment. "Scavengers, like the Doctor said. Harmless. They're tiny. But the point is, the little fish swim alongside the big fish."

"Do you mean like sharks?"

He nodded. "Great big sharks. So, what the Doctor means is, we had them, now we get that."

"Something is coming." I agreed, trying to take control, to calm down, but I had already lost one family, I didn't want to lose this one. Where was Jack? "How close?"

Now he shrugged. "There's no way of telling, but the pilot fish don't swim far from their daddy."

And then Jackie got our attention. "Funny sort of rocks."

But I knew better. There was sound coming off those rocks, dark grey and red. "That's not rocks." It was an red-eyed ugly alien with a head like a goat's skull.

I grabbed Mickey's laptop and went hacking, using my sonic hands to get even further in than the Buffalo password did, before I found something. "Rose." She came up behind me. "Take a look. I've got access to the military. They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way."

"Coming for what, though? The Doctor? You?" God I hoped not.

"'I don't know. Maybe it's coming for all of us. The Doctor and I could just be the main event." I got up a clearer image as Mickey brought me some tea, and I gulped it, ignoring the heat. It was freezing. "Have you seen them before? Because I haven't."

She shook her head. "No." The alien leader was speaking a softer language than some other things, and I stared at the lips, willing it to translate for me. "I don't understand what they're saying. The TARDIS translates alien languages inside our heads, all the time, wherever we are."

"So, why isn't it doing it now?"

"I don't know. Must be the Doctor." I said, rubbing my eyes. "Like he's part of the circuit, and he's, he's broken. I'm not strong enough, I can feel it try to connect, but I have a piece missing or something."

I got up and went back to where dad was sleeping, seeing Jackie now asleep at his bedside and I sat on the bed next to him. "Dad... I know, I know I said I'd never call you it, but I am, because you are. I can barely remember my last dad, and you... you're here for me. Please, please don't leave me, you're all I have, the only one who can tell me about our race, about how we can do this. How we cheat death. So... Just please. Come back to me."

Then I kissed his head and stood up, before running to hug Rose who looked close to tears herself. But then we could hear shouting outside in the dawn, and we opened the door to see a blank faced man walking outside the Tyler's flat, a woman trying to get his attention. "Sandra?" Rose asked.

"He won't listen. He's just walking. He won't stop walking! There's this sort of light thing." She was close to tears. "Jason? Stop it right now! Please, Jason, just stop."

And it wasn't just him, there were lots of people walking through the estates like it, all heading to the roofs. But they didn't jump. "What do we do?"

"'Nothing. There's no one to save us. Not anymore." I said, and then walked back down. I couldn't do anything. Fat lot of good being the Seer was if I couldn't help all these people, not like the Doctor could. My real dad.

I sat back down in front of the TV, watching Harriet talking to the nation instead of the Queen. "Ladies and gentlemen, if I may take a moment during this terrible time. It's hardly the Queen's speech. I'm afraid that's been cancelled." She looked to the side. "Did we ask about the royal family? Oh. They're on the roof. But, ladies and gentlemen, this crisis is unique, and I'm afraid to say, it might get much worse. I would ask you all to remain calm. But I have one request. Doctor, Jaclyn, if you're out there, we need you. I don't know what to do. If you can hear me, Doctor. If anyone knows the Doctor, if anyone can find him, or even his Ward, a 15 year old called Jace Smith, the situation has never been more desperate. Help us. Please, Doctor, Jace. Help us. God help us."

"He's gone." I whispered, starting to cry and Jackie wrapped her arms around me, cuddling me like I was her own daughter. "My dads gone. He's left me, Jackie. He's left me, Jackie."

She rocked me back and forth, stroking my hair and tried to help. "It's all right. I'm sorry. I've got you."

I felt something coming then and pulled away, putting up a barrier around our flat as the glass everywhere else shattered, all over the city from a sonic blast that my barrier absorbed. Sonic, well, I wasn't a hedgehog, but hey.

Grabbing my leather jacket again, I started getting dad ready for transport, getting Rose to help. "Mickey, we're going to carry him. Mum, get your stuff, and get some food. We're going."

"Where to?" Mickey asked, helping to lift him.

Where else? "The TARDIS. It's the only safe place on Earth." Jackie didn't like that we were hiding. "Jackie, look in the sky. There's a great, big, alien invasion and I don't know what to do, all right? I've travelled with him, and I've seen all that stuff, but when I'm stuck on Earth, I'm useless, I'm just some little street girl again. Now, all we can do is run and hide, and I'm sorry. Now, move. Oh, lift him up."

Then we got a a move on to the TARDIS, Jackie struggling behind us with half a dozen carrier bags. "Mum, will you just leave that stuff and give us a hand?"

"It's food! Jace said we need food." That was actually a ploy to stop her dropping him down the stairs. I'd seen her try to carry things.

"Just leave it!"

We got inside and lay him carefully on the floor, meaning that he was close to the workings, which may have been what he needed. "No chance you could fly this thing?"

I shook my head, seeing the TARDIS not want to show me anything. "Not anymore, no."

"Well, you did it before. Took us to where Phoenix was, and back to the Game Station."

"I can't!" I snapped, my frustration hitting critical as I remembered I hadn't slept in days. "The TARDIS isn't telling me what to do, there's nothing!"

Mickey hugged me, letting me just shake as I calmed down. "So, what do we do? Just sit here?"

"That's as good as it gets."

Then Jackie came in, dumping a load of food. "Right, here we go. Nice cup of tea."

"Mmm, the solution to everything."

"Now, stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food."

She left again and then Micks smirked. "Tea. Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." He spotted the scanner. "How does this thing work? If it picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered. What do you do to it?"

"I don't know." I sighed, reaching out to touch it and getting a strange feeling. "It sort of tunes itself. Dad tried to get me into Disney on here. Told him I'd rather boil my ears and eyes in acid than watch yet another Herbie film."

An odd pattern came on the scanner. "Maybe it's a distress signal."

"A fat lot of good that's going to do."

"Are you going to be a misery all the time, Rose?" She agreed. "You should look at it from my point of view, stuck in here with your mum's cooking." That was a good point.

And then I remembered. "Where is she? I'd better give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there."

"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine."

I laughed as I headed for the door. "Why don't you tell her yourself?"

"I'm not that brave."

I grinned back at him before leaving the TARDIS. "Oh, I don't know." And then something grabbed me, making me scream and the other two run after me. "Get off! Get off me!" They were close to being grabbed two, my dad lying on the floor, the doors wide open. "The door! Close the door!"

Mickey got there just before an alien, and they cheered as we were dragged out in front of a crowd. Where Harriet was. "Jace. Jace!" I ran to hug her, and she clung to me like I was the answer to her prayers. "I've got you. My Lord. Oh, my precious thing, you're looking so good now." Yeah, food and a shower did that. "The Doctor, is he with you?"

"No. My dads off world." Close. "We're on our own."

The Sycorax started speaking and a PA guy translated. "The girl of colours and ash. She has the clever blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet."

"But she can't." Harrie cried, trying to hold me back but I stepped forward.

"Yeah, I can."

Mickey and Rose stared. "Don't you dare."

"Someone's got to be the Doctor. Why not his daughter?"

"They'll kill you."

And? "Never stopped him." I looked at them all, high above me and made the room shake with a sonic blast to the floor. "My name is the Seer, known as both the Girl of Colours and the Bad Wolf. I am of two worlds, both this one and one long since burnt in the Last Great Time War. And as speaker for this planet, I demand that you leave this planet in peace, or I will be forced to use the same ability of sound waves to rip apart this ship. Now leave this planet!"

But they all burst into laughter. "You are very, very funny. And now you're going to die."

"Leave her alone!" Harriet cried, but I didn't flinch. I'd seen death, it didn't scare me.

"Don't touch her!"

They were held back as the leader walked towards me. "Did you think you were clever with your stolen words? We are the Sycorax, we stride the darkness. Next to us you are but a wailing child, even if you have your witch craft. If you are the best your planet can offer as a champion"

But then it started coming through as English. And we told him so. "I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile."

"That's English. Can you hear English?" The others agreed with me and that little part of my mind that was painfully trying to connect finally did. "If I can hear English, then it's being translated. Which means it's working. Which means-"

We all turned to look at the TARDIS, just as my dad opened the doors. "Did you miss me?" The Sycorax cracked his whip but he just caught the end and pullsed it out of his hand. "You could have someone's eye out with that. You hurt one hair on that little Princesses head, and I will have yours." They tried to protest so he broke a club over his knee. "You just can't get the staff. Now, you, just wait. I'm busy." He looked at all the people here. "Mickey, hello! And Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North. Blimey, it's like This Is Your Life." Then he grinned at me. "Tea! That's all I needed, a good cup of tea! Superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for healing the synapses. Now, first thing's first. Be honest, how do I look, my Jacey Jacey Jay??"

"Er, different."

"Good different or bad different?" I was his daughter, how would I know?

"Just different."

He went incredibly serious for a moment. "Am I ginger?"

I shook my head. "No, you're just sort of brown."

And now he was upset. "I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger. And you, Calliope Smith, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me. Oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger."

"I'm sorry." Harriet interjected. "Who is this?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"He's the Doctor."

We were just confusing her further. "'But what happened to my Doctor? Or is it a title that's just passed on?"

"I'm him. I'm literally him. Same man, new face. Well, new everything." Why did he have to look at Rose then.

"But you can't be."

He lowered his voice a little, moving me in front of him so I could stay in his sight. "Harriet Jones, we were trapped in Downing Street and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens, it wasn't the war, it was the thought of your mother being on her own."

"Oh, my God."

Dad beamed at her. "Did you win the election?"

Harrie looked sheepish for a moment. "Landslide majority."

"If I might interrupt."

We all looked back at the Sycorax for a moment. "Yes, sorry. Hello, big fellow."

"Who exactly are you?"

He was still grinning. "Well, that's the question."

"I demand to know who you are!"

"I don't know!" He patronised, mimicking him. "See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob, that I will use to embarrass my little girl to no end." Oh, come on! "And how am I going to react when I see this, a great big threatening button." Uh oh. "A great big threatening button which must not be pressed under any circumstances, am I right?" Definitely not good. "'Let me guess. It's some sort of control matrix, hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it?" He opened the base of the pillar. "And what've we got here? Blood?" He proceeded to taste it, gross. "Yeah, definitely blood. Human blood. A Positive, with just a dash of iron. Ah, but that means blood control. Blood control! Oh, I haven't seen blood control for years. You're controlling all the A Positives. Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem. Because I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a great big threatening button which should never, ever, ever be pressed, then I just want to do this."

He hit the button and we all cried out no, but it was too late. "You killed them!"

"tWhat do you think, big fellow? Are they dead?"

The ugly creature looked grumpy. "We allow them to live."

"Allow?" Dad scoffed. "You've no choice. I mean, that's all blood control is. A cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes. It's like hypnosis. You can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis. You can't hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct's too strong."

That made him angry again as dad moved over to me, making sure I was still OK, checking the scabs on my forehead from the splinters. "Blood control was just one form of conquest. I can summon the armada and take this world by force."

"Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that, of course you could. But why? Look at these people. These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than."' Come on! "No, hold on. Sorry, that's The Lion King. But the point still stands. Leave them alone!"

"Or what?"

"Or" He grabbed a sword and ran back towards the TARDIS. "I challenge you." They all laughed again. "Oh, that struck a chord. Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"

The creature drew his own sword. "You stand as this world's champion."

Which he liked the sound of and I was very thankful to be out of the spotlight. "Thank you. I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up." He threw me his dressing gown. "So, you accept my challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?"

"For the planet?" He hissed, moving closer. I knew what that meant, it translated and it was not pretty.

Dad's eyes were hard. "For the planet." And then the swords clashed into a metallic black clang, and I felt like just taking apart this ship anyway, and leaving us with the TARDIS to escape. But I should probably give him the benefit of the doubt. They retreated outside, and we ran after them. The Doctor was driven back to the edge, and hit on the nose and I went to help. "stay back! Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet, and I don't want him getting you, Jace!" Then he was knocked down and cut off his hand. "You cut my hand off."

"Ya! Sycorax!" God, that was as annoying as a Sontaran.

But dad just smiled. "And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky. Because quite by chance I'm still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle, which means I've got just enough residual cellular energy to do this." He grew a new hand.

"Witchcraft."

"'Time Lord." I shouted, grabbing another sword and throwing it to him. "Dad!"

He gave me a wry grin. "Oh, so I'm still your dad, then?"

"No arguments from me!"

"Want to know the best bit?"' Dad grinned, holding up the new sword. "This new hand? It's a fighting hand!" They fought again and he disarmed the Sycorax, thumping both hilts into it's abdomen, twice. It fell, right on the edge, overlooking London. "I win."

"Then kill me." He glanced at me as I looked at the silver blade against the creatures throat. "Spill my blood in front of your child."

Dad didn't even glance this was. "I'll spare your life if you'll take this Champion's command. Leave this planet, and never return. What do you say?"

"Yes."

"Swear on the blood of your species."

"I swear."

And that was it, he just stood back up and walked over to us. "There we are, then. Thanks for that. Cheers, big fellow."

"Bravo!" Harriet cheered.

"That says it all." I laughed, glad that it was over, and that I had him back. "Bravo!"

I helped him put the dressing gown back on. "Ah, not bad for a man in his jim-jams." He caught me looking at his new hand and winked. "Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man." Dad reached into his pocket. "Hold on, what have I got in here? A satsuma. Ah, that friend of yours, Rose. He does like his snacks doesn't he? But doesn't that just sum up Christmas? You go through all those presents and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's always one stupid old satsuma. Who wants a satsuma?"

Then the Sycorax leader got back up, and tried to go for dads back, but he just threw the fruit, getting a part of the wing to open and he fell. "No second chances. I'm that sort of a man." He said, then took my hand, leading me back into the main cavern. "By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when go you back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you tell them of it's riches, it's people, it's potential. When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this. It is defended."

And then we were back on Earth. "Where are we?"

"We're just off Bloxom Road." I laughed. "We're just round the corner, we did it!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Dad said, and then the space ship zoomed off, and he hugged me tight. "Oh my Jace, I am so proud of you..."

"T, thanks dad." I smiled, and hugged back before Harriet came over.

She held her arms out for a hug from us both next. "My Doctor. And your Jace."

"Prime Minister."

She gave us a big smile. "Absolutely the same man, and you're even more of an amazing girl. Are there many more out there?"

We nodded. "Oh, not just Sycorax. Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals. This planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed more and more. You'd better get used to it."

At which point Jackie came back. "Oh, talking of trouble."

"Oh, my God! You did it, Rose! Oh!" She spotted Dad being up and about.

I ran to hug her, glad I had her in my life. "You did it too! It was the tea. Fixed his head."

" That was all I needed, cup of tea. That and one of Jace's hugs, they make anyone better." Oh, haha.

"Oh, my God, it's the bleeding Prime Minister!" We had a group hug, and everyone then mocked me, the Girl of Colour. Meh. " Are you better?"

Dad nodded, one arm around me, the other Rose. "I am, yeah."

I could hear something behind me though, hushed voices in a pale green before an even louder crashing noise light up green in the sky, so everyone could see it, blowing up the space ship. I knew right away what happened. "That was murder." I growled lowly to Harriet, dad looking just as angry.

"That was defence. It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."

"But they were leaving."

She didn't look ashamed. "You said yourself, Doctor, they'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth. I'm sorry, Doctor, Jace, but you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today. Mister Llewellyn and the Major, they were murdered. They died right in front of me while you were sleeping, your daughter mopping your brow. In which case we have to defend ourselves."

"Britain's Golden Age." I scoffed.

Harrie shrugged. "It comes with a price."

"I gave them the wrong warning." Dad told her, walking closer. "I should've told them to run as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming. The human race."

And that got her a little angry. "Those are the people I represent. I did it on their behalf."

"Then we should have stopped you."

"What does that make you, Doctor, Seer? Another alien threat?"

Dad narrowed his newly green eyes at her, his once dark green voice now a light purple, flecked with blue. "Don't challenge me, Harriet Jones, because I'm a completely new man, still willing to do anything for my little girl. I could bring down your Government with a single word."

Which didn't impress her. "You're the most remarkable man I've ever met, but I don't think you're quite capable of that."

"No, you're right." I agreed, knowing what to say. "Not a single word, just six. Six words." Now she was scared. We went over to Alex, and whispered her downfall in her ears before just walking away.

DW

Dad went off to the TARDIS for a while, getting dressed, while I helped the Tylers and Mickey make Christmas dinner, my first one in years, getting to carve the turkey just as he came back, in a brown pinstriped suit. And he looked amazing. We moved onto crackers, where I ended up with a multicoloured hat, and Rose a pink one, Dad with blue and Mickey and Jackie both with green.

They televised how Harriet was already suffering with what I said, before one of Jackie's friends phoned and said to go outside. "Why?"

"I don't know, just go outside and look. Come on, shift!"

We did so, and the ground was covered with white flakes falling from the sky. Streaks of light cris-crossing it like stars. If only. "Oh, it's beautiful. What are they, meteors?" Rose asked, putting a proper hat over my head as dad threw her one for me. Blue with fire works.

"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere. This isn't snow, it's ash."

"Okay, not so beautiful."

But he smiled a little, wrapping his arms around my from behind to keep me warm in his old jacket. "This is a brand new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now. Everyone saw it. Everything's new."

"'And what about you? What are you going to do next?" Rose asked him, looking a little wary. Why should she be?

He shrugged. "Well, back to the TARDIS. Same old life. Got to get Jace learnt about our people, which was incredibly bad grammar."

She smiled a little. "On your own?" Oh, just kiss her.

"Why, don't you want to come?"

"Well, yeah."

Now dad looked wary. "I just thought, because I changed."

"Yeah, I thought, because you changed you might not want me anymore. You've got Jace, you're not on your own."

"Oh, I'd love you to come, I still need you for Jacey."

"Okay." I can look after myself you know.

Mickey felt left out. "You're never going to stay, are you? You say you love your daughter, but she nearly got electrocuted today."

"There's just so much out there." I told him, giving him a hug. "So much to see. I've got to go with my dad, and Rose... Shes pretty much the childminder"

Jackie just thought we were weird. "Well, I reckon you're mad, the pair of you. It's like you go looking for trouble."

"Trouble's just the bits in-between." Dad laughed, going over to her, so much more energetic now, and it was awesome. "It's all waiting out there, Jackie, and it's brand new to me. All those planets, and creatures and horizons. I haven't seem them yet! Not with these eyes." He looked back at us, holding out his hands for Rose and I, me getting the lopped off one. "And it is going to be fantastic."

"That hand of yours still gives me the creeps, dad. The fact that could happen to me." But I took it anyway, knowing I was going to learn all about it, about who I was, and my history. "So, where're we going to go first?"

And then we were off again. A special Christmas trip.


	13. Beautiful

The Doctor:

Now that Rose and my Jace were used to what I looked like, they were getting ready to head off. Something about Rose needing to redye her hair, and Jace needed a trim, but eventually they came back, both grinning. "So where are we going?"

"Further than we've ever gone before." I grinned, flicking a lever and sending us jolting through time and space to where we were next going. And then I saw my daughters hair. "JACE! What the hell have you done?!" I demanded, going over to her and looking at her usually ash coloured hair streaked with blue, green, red and purple through the light colour. It looked good, but not allowed.

She wafted my hands away, and Rose had the decency to look sheepish, her now shorter and redyed blonde hair fine, because she was an adult. I told Jace to wait a few years. "She said you said it was fine, Doctor, I'm sorry."

"Rose, that was Jace, not you. And now, you're grounded, you have to stay with me at all times, and you're not allowed to use the music room." Her face scowled. "No buts, you went against me. You had 9 months to wait, Jaclyn, not long, definitely not for us, you could have waited."

Jacey couldn't really argue with that, and I felt bad for being so strict, but if I let her get away with it, she'd think she could walk all over me. Time Lord teenager, look how well that turned out for me. We landed just across the river from a giant city, cars flying around like mad overhead, and Jace looked amazed. "Oh, wow."

"It's the year five billion and twenty three." I told her, throwing her my old leather jacket that had shrunk down to fit her, well, it was the same size, just smaller on the outside, an inverted TARDIS. "We're in the galaxy M87, and this? This is New Earth."

"'That's just. That's just"

I grinned at them both. "'Not bad. Not bad at all."

Jace hugged me, and I knew I was forgiven for grounding her, and her hair did look pretty awesome. "That's amazing. I'll never get used to this. Never. Different ground beneath my feet, different sky. What's that smell?"

That was a good point actually, and I reached down to grab the grass and sniffed. "'Apple grass."

"Apple grass."

"Yeah, yeah."

Rose smiled, taking my free arm. "It's beautiful. Oh, I love this. Can I just say, travelling with you, I love it. And Jace, you're amazing too."

"Me too." I grinned, kissing my tiny daughters multicoloured head before leading them off down the hill. "Come on" We found a space we liked before we lying down on my long coat, just watching the city. "So, the year five billion, the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted. Jace, this was before I found you, sort of."

"That was our first date." Rose grinned, the wind making her hair fly into her face, and she looked even more gorgeous.

But I remembered that amazingly well, it only being about a year ago. "We had chips. So anyway, planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up, oh yeah, they get all nostalgic, big revival movement, but then find this place. Same size as the Earth, same air, same orbit. Lovely. Call goes out, the humans move in."

Jacey was staring off into the city, her eyes bright and darting, looking at all the sounds. "What's the city called, dad?"

"New New York."

They both rolled their eyes. "Oh, come on."

Why didn't they believe me? "It is. It's the city of New New York. Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original, so that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York." They were both staring at me. "What?"

"You're so different."' Jace smiled, cuddling into me a little, and I wrapped my arm around her, my little girl. I would protect her to the end of the universe and back.

"New New Doctor." I smiled down at her. "New new Dad."

And then Rose giggled a bit. "Can we go and visit New New York, so good they named it twice?"

"Well, I thought we might go there first." I pointed to an elegant pair of curved skyscrapers standing apart from the city on their side of the river. "Some sort of hospital. Green moon on the side. That's the universal symbol for hospitals. I got this. A message on the psychic paper." I showed it to them both. Ward 26 Please Come. "Someone wants to see me. Or us."

"Hmm. And I thought we were just sight-seeing." Rose got to her feet, grabbing Jacey and pulling her up too. "Come on, then. Let's go and buy some grapes."

We headed over there and then, and I explained to them how I hated hospitals, something that had always been there. I watched my sister die in childbirth in an old hospital, and she didn't regenerate. She just died and her son lived. I'd hated them since.

"Bit rich coming from you, Dad."

"I can't help it. I don't like hospitals." I shivered a little as we crossed the threshold, squeezing her hand, remembering how it was broken when I first met her. I healed her, all of her. Her body was perfect and she would have a great time in this form. "They give me the creeps."

Rose was looking around the hospital itself, how up market it had gone. "Very smart. Not exactly NHS."

"No shop. I like the little shop." Only good part of a hospital.

"I thought this far in the future, they'd have cured everything." Jace muttered, looking equally uncomfortable. She spent 6 months learning to walk again after her parents accident.

"The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It's an ongoing war." I kept walking a little, heading for the lifts.

Rose followed, but Jacey was staring at the nurses. "They're cats. Like, Rain style cats, they look like Rain, as a person."

"Now, don't stare." I told her sternly. "Think what you look like to them, all pink and grey and those colours. That's where I'd put the shop. Right there."

I walked into a lift then, Rose getting in with me. "Ward 26, thanks!"

"Hold on, dad! Hold on!" Jace shouted, suddenly running after us, but the doors were closed and we were moving.

"Oh, too late. We're going up."

There was a pause. "It's all right, there's another lift."

"Ward 26." Ah, another part. "And watch out for the disinfectant." Which she misheard multiple times and I gave up trying to explain. We were then drenched, blow dried and perfumed. Rose took a moment to get it, and Jace probably hated it, she hated all perfume apart from this Karma stuff Jackie got her for Christmas.

We were met by a Sister, who started talking to us, and she seemed nice. "Nice place. No shop, downstairs. I'd have a shop. Not a big one. Just a shop, so people can shop."

"The hospital is a place of healing." She told us, taking down her veil.

"A shop does some people the world of good. Not me. Other people." I pointed to Rose slyly, and she smiled back knowingly. Girls.

"The Sisters of Plentitude take a lifelong vow to help, and to mend."

We passed an open cubicle and then a woman came out to have a go at us as we looked at the man. "Excuse me! Members of the public may only gaze upon the Duke of Manhattan with written permission from the Senate of New New York."

"That's Petrifold Regression, right?"

"I'm dying, sir. A lifetime of charity and abstinence, and it ends like this." Yeah, if you're a virgin then so am I, and Jace was an act of God.

They had their area cleared and Jatt moved us on. "He'll be up and about in no time."

You had to be kidding me. "I doubt it. Petrifold Regression? He's turning to stone. There won't be a cure for oh, a thousand years? He might be up and about, but only as a statue." Rose shivered a little. She hated any form of statue.

"Have faith in the Sisterhood." Jatt told us, and Rose looked wary again, seeing as they really were just the evolved form of Rain, currently asleep in the console room. "But is there no one here you recognise? It's rather unusual to visit without knowing the patient."

But then I saw who it was, someone capable of amazing telepathic powers. "No, I think I've found him." The Face of Boe was looking out the picture window at the view of the city.

"Novice Hame, if I can leave this gentleman and Lady in your care?" Jatt asked the younger, more hesitant cat lady with him.

She nodded and the Sister went to leave, but I realised Jace still hadn't gotten here. So much for having to stay by my side. "Oh, I think my daughter got lost. Jace Smith. Could you ask at reception?"

"Certainly, sir."

"I'm afraid the Face of Boe's asleep." Hame said as the elder left. "That's all he tends to do these days. Are you a friend, or-"

"We met just the once on Platform One. What's wrong with him?"

Hame gave a pained expression. "I'm so sorry. I thought you knew. The Face of Boe is dying."

"Of what?"

"Old age."' Oh, no... "The one thing we can't cure. He's thousands of years old. Some people say millions, although that's impossible." Never say that, he could be older than me, I was 901.

"Oh, I don't know. I like impossible. I'm here. I look a bit different, but it's me, It's the Doctor, and Rose is here too." Though she was looking around and wondering where my little Jace was.

We went to see if we could find her, before coming back and I gave Hame a cup of water, knowing she was working hard. "That's very kind. There's no need."

"You're the one working."

"There's not much to do, just maintain his smoke. And I suppose I'm company. I can hear him singing, sometimes, in my mind. Such ancient songs." What, like beyonce, single ladies?

"Are we the only visitors?"' Rose asked, and that was a good point.

"The rest of Boe-kind became extinct long ago." The cat said sadly. "He's the only one left. Legend says that the Face of Boe has watched the universe grow old. There's all sorts of superstitions around him. One story says that just before his death, the Face of Boe will impart his great secret, that he will speak those words only to those like himself."

"What does that mean?"

She looked taken aback. "'It's just a story."

"Tell me the rest."

"It's said he'll talk to the wanderers. To the man without a home, making one wherever he is with his child. The lonely God and the Colourful Child."

On that note, I needed to call my daughter and really find her. And luckily she picked up. "Er, wotcha."

"'Where've you been, Jaclyn? How long does it take to get to Ward 26?"

"I'm on my way, governor." What? "I shall proceed up the apples and pears." OK, why did she have to mention pears, she knows that I hate pears!

"I'd better go. See you in a minute, love."

The Duke of Manhattan was very happy, and he saw Rose and I again, grinning. "Didn't think I was going to make it. It's that couple again! They're my good luck charm. Come in. Don't be shy."

The consort woman looked wary but smiled. "Any friendship expressed by the Duke of Manhattan does not constitute a form of legal contract."

"Winch me up. Up! Look at me. No sign of infection."

I was offered champagne but I declined. "You had Petrifold Regression, right?"

The man beamed at me. "That being the operative word. Past tense. Completely cured."

"But that's impossible."

"Primitive species would accuse us of magic," A nurse told us, appearing from one side. "But it's merely the tender application of science."

"How on Earth did you cure him?

The Cat smiled slyly. "How on New Earth, you might say."

I saw the iv that was slowly dripping down into him still. "What's in that solution?"

"A simple remedy."

I wasn't in the mood for you to be cryptic. "Then tell me what it is."

"I'm sorry. Patient confidentiality. I don't believe we've met. My name is Matron Casp."

"I'm the Doctor, this is Rose, my, friend."

That got her a little hesitant. "I think you'll find that we're the doctors here."

Jatt came back then, and looked at the Matron. "Matron Casp, you're needed in Intensive Care." They excused themselves, and walked away.

Eventually, Jace came back, while Rose and I were looking at a a person floating in mid air. "There you are, my Colourful girl." I grabbed her hand and started showing her things. "Come and look at this patient. Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it. They've invented a cell washing cascade. It's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one."' A man as white as his bed gown. "Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine. I need to find a terminal. I've got to see how they do this. Because if they've got the best medicine in the world, then why is it such a secret?"

"I can't Adam and Eve it."

OK, I got that she was annoyed over the grounding, and no music room, but this was a little too far. "What's, what's. what's with the voice?"

"Oh, I don't know. Just larking about. New Earth, new me."

That was a god point. "Well, I can talk. New New Doctor. New Dad, my amazing daughter."

She smiled a little, her blue eyes darker than normal. "Terminal's this way."

It was by the lift, and I got to work, but I didn't know to get through it. "Nope, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop. Jace, anything you can get?" She looked confused, and her eyes weren't doing what they normally did, chasing sounds. What was going on with her, she hated turning it off. "Jacey?"

"No, it's missing something else. When I was downstairs, those Nurse Cat Nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it?"

That sounded a little different, but still like her. "You're right. Well done."

"'Why would they hide a whole department, Doctor?" She asked, and I frowned. She'd stopped calling me Doctor days ago, I was her dad, she told me so. "It's got to be there somewhere. Search the sub-frame."

I was testing her now, because my little girl was smarter than me, Time Lord with a human imagination. "What if the sub-frame's locked?"

"'Try the installation protocol." No, she'd use her hands, she could get through a dead lock.

But until I could get to the bottom of this, we should just go with it. "Yeah. Of course. Sorry. Hold on." I managed to get through, and then the wall slid down to reveal a corridor.

"Intensive care." Rose muttered. "Certainly looks intensive."

Jace lead the way down a good old-fashioned staircase, the whole place is lined with the cells, thousands of them, a bit like the Tomb of the Cybermen from a long time ago. I opened one at random. It contained a very sick looking man. "That's disgusting. What's wrong with him?"' Jace asked, looking grossed out. This was wrong, so wrong.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I closed the door and moved onto the next, showing a girl just the same, no older than my daughter.

Rose looked horrified, but in a different way. "What disease is that?"

"All of them." I told them. "Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything.

And Jace had the wrong thought. "What about us? Are we safe?"

"The air's sterile." I told her, pulling her back as I closed the door. "Just don't touch them."

"How many patients are there?"

"They're not patients."

She frowned a little. "But they're sick."

But it was more than that. "They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm."

"Why don't they just die?"

"Plague carriers."' I told her, disgusted at the Cats. "The last to go."

And then Hame turned up. "It's for the greater cause."

"Novice Hame, When you took your vows, did you agree to this?"

"The Sisterhood has sworn to help."

I glared at the girl. "What, by killing?"

She looked pained. "But they're not real people." Then why were they in pain? "They're specially grown. They have no proper existence."

"What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!"

Now she was scared, and she took a step back. "Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh."

"These people are alive."

"But think of those Humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us."

Rose shook her head now. "If they live because of this, then life is worthless."

"But who are you to decide that?"

"I'm the Doctor and this is Rose Tyler. And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me."

Jace, or not Jace, stepped forward, her colourful hair scraped back in a pony tail, something she'd always hated. "Just to confirm. None of the humans in the city actually know about this?"

Hame shook her head. "We thought it best not."

I'd had enough of this. "Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to my daughter?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"And I'm being very, very calm. You want to be aware of that. Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing, and hers is the most delicate in the universe. Whatever you've done to Jace's head, I want it reversed."

But the cat was very confused, though Rose could also see there was something up. "'We haven't done anything."

"I'm perfectly fine, Doctor."

Rose looked at her. "These people are dying, and Jace would care."

That made her sigh and roll her darker blue eyes. "Oh, all right, clever clogs. Smarty pants. Lady-killer."

"What's happened to you? You were calling me dad, you'd accepted your heritage."

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to find it out."

"Who are you?"

The body of my little girl stood up on tip toes to whisper in my ear. "The last human."

"Cassandra?"

"Wake up and smell the perfume." Then she squirted something at Rose and I, and everything went black for a moment. When there aws light again, I was bathed in a green light, Rose crammed in with me. "Let us out! Let us out!"

The form of my daughter stood in front of us. "Aren't you lucky there was a spare? Standing room only, sorry for the cramped space."

"You've stolen Jace's body." Rose breathed, and I wrapped my arms around her, trying to keep her calm.

"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor, Rose. And now, that's exactly what I've got. One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about three minutes left. Enjoy."

"Just let Jace go, Cassandra."

"I will. As soon as I've found someone a little older, and less common, then I'll junk her with the waste. " She was one of a kind, and so powerful, but you had no access to the sounds and lights. "Now hushaby. It's showtime."

I heard my daughters voice talking with the cats before something opened all the doors and we stepped out with all the diseased people. "What've you done?"

"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See you, sugar daddy!" I shouted a warning to the cats before pulling Rose along after them. Until we saw all the cages were open. "Oh my god."

"What the hell have you done?" Rose demanded of her, making her look at us. My daughters face with a hidden villain inside. Sounded like the Valleyard...

"'It wasn't me."

"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra, because she is 15 and you don;t know how important she is. We've got to go down."

The girl looked horrified. "But there's thousands of them!"

"Run! Down! Down! Go down!" She got moving and I pulled Rose along with me after her, wanting to keep her in sight. "Keep going! Go down!" She went to call a lift at the bottom. "No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving."

Cassandra then ran a different direction. "This way!"

But Chip got cut off from us. "Someone will touch him."

"Leave him!"' The voice of my girl shouted. "He's just a clone thing. He's only got a half life. Come on!"

I sent a reproachful look to him, before running after. "We're trapped! What am I going to do?" Cassandra cried, finding people all around us.

"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body." I snapped, staring at the device she used. "That psychograft is banned on every civilised planet. You're compressing Jace to death."

Cassandra didn't look happy "But I've got nowhere to go. My original skin's dead."

"Not my problem." I replied simply, getting out the sonic. "You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give her back to me."

"You asked for it." And then everything went black again. When light came back, I was up a ladder and Cassandra was back in my daughter, who looked exhausted. "Oh, punk- tastic again. Open it!"

"Not till you get out of her."

Jace's eyes were even darker than before. "We need the Doctor."

But I was not having any of this. "I order you to leave her." Then it went black again. Until she decided to go into a diseased girl and I got the lift doors open, pulling Rose and Jace up, smiling at my little girl. "Nice to have you back, love."

But then she was gone again as Cassandra got through the doors as they closed. "That was your last warning, Cassandra!"

"Inside her head." She breathed. "They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives and they've never been touched. Colours, the colour of pain and longingm emanating from them..."

Rose and I offered her our hands, and pulled her too her feet. She was starting to feel, meaning she would leave her later. And then we were attacked by what looked like the survivors from the Walking Dead, all crammed into a room. This was not a Zombie apocalypse. "We're safe! We're safe! We're safe! We're clean! We're clean! Look, look."

"Show me your skin."

"Look, clean." I shouted at them. "Look, if we'd been touched, we'd be dead. So how's it going up here? What's the status?"

Clovis did not look happy. "There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad." Oh, that was not happening.

I shook my head, moving Jace/Cassandra, further into the room. "You can't do that. If they forced entry, they'd break quarantine."

"I am not dying in here."

"We can't let a single particle of disease get out. There is ten million people in that city. They'd all be at risk. Now, turn that off!" Rose shouted. She refused.

"All right, fine." I told them, moving them closer. "So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Rose, Jace, novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Move it!" They all got to work while I tied them onto a piece of heavy silk rope wrapped around my torso. "How's that? Will that do?"

Cassandra stared at me, and I could see Jace fighting in there, flashes of colour in her eyes. :I don't know. Will it do for what?" I opened the lift doors. "The lifts aren't working."

"Not moving. Different thing. Here we go." And then to hers and Rose's horror, I jumped to grab the cable. "I'm going down! Come on! Cassandra, I'm not letting you escape, Rose, make sure they don't break quarantine."

The girl shook her head, playing with the pendant her other dad had given her. "Not in a million years."

Seriously? "I need another pair of hands, Jace's are the only ones strong enough. What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little?" But her decision was made for her when some diseased started coming. Rose managed to get them blocked off, but not before Jace jumped and wrapped her arms around me and we went down, coming to a stop on top of the lift.

"Well, that's one way to lose weight." She told me, pressing her hand on her still too concave stomach.

"Now, listen. When I say so, take hold of that lever."

But she wasn't as smart as my little girl, fighting away in there. "There's still a quarantine down there, we can't-"

Just shut up! "Hold that lever! I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself." I squirted all the cures in there. "Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got, and I know my daughter is strong, so strong."

"What about you?"

"I've got an appointment." I smiled, propping myself over the whole. "The Doctor is in." Then I dropped and opened the door, calling out to the poor people in so much pain. "I'm in here! Come on!"

Cassandra sounded shocked. "Don't tell them."

"Pull that lever!" The people started to shuffle towards the lift. "'Come and get me. Come on! I'm in here! Come on!" The disinfectant started. "Hurry up! Come on! Come on, come on." They got hit with the mass cures before healing and walking back out. "All they want to do is pass it on. Pass it on!" Cassandra was confused above me, but I understood what was going on. "Pass it on!"

Then I helped my little girl down, though she was still Cassandra. I was getting her back. "What did they pass on? Did you kill them? All of them?" She asked, and I shook my head, leading her out.

"No. That's your way of doing things." Oh, this was amazing. "I'm the Doctor, and I cured them." I girl came and hugged me, no older than my Jace herself. "That's right. Hey, there we go, sweetheart. Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it. It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand new form of life. New humans! Look at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them. The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! Ha!"

Everyone was taken away, all of the Cats arrested, and the humans taken off to be tested and fully classified, given names and identities, before I remembered something, running back upstairs, still soaking wet. "The Face of Boe!"

Rose was sat with him, smiling as we came back. "You were supposed to be dying." I told him, seeing him awake.

"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait."

Cass-Jace rolled her eyes and groaned. "Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face."'

I shhed her, and let him speak. "I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew."

"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old."

"There are? That would be impossible." I could hear the smile in his voice, and so could Rose as she smiled back.

"Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me. Well, me and Jace, when we get her back."

There was a slight bow of his giant face. "A great secret."

"So the legend says."

"It can wait."

Please, I liked secrets. "Oh, does it have to?"

"We shall meet again, Doctor and Jace, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day." Then he beamed away.

"That is enigmatic." I gushed. "That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic." I stood up and looked at the face of my daughter but the eyes of Cassandra. "And now for you."'

"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?"

Not a chance in hell. "You've lived long enough. Leave that body and end it, Cassandra. That is my daughter, my 15 year old little girl, and you are taking away her too short life."

"I don't want to die."

I knew how that felt. "No one does." And then Chip came back, something no one was expecting. "Oh, you're alive."

"I kept myself safe for you, mistress."

"A body. And not just that, a volunteer."

Oh, you were kissing me. "Don't you dare. He's got a life of his own." But Chip wanted it and they went through it, and I caught Jace as she collapsed. "Oh! You all right? Whoa! Okay? Jacey? Jacey Jay?"

"Yeah."' She breathed, her electric blue eyes coming back in full force. "Hello, dad!"

I grinned at her. "Hello. Welcome back."

And then Cassandra was back. "Oh, sweet Lord. I'm a walking doodle."

"You can't stay in there." Jace told her, getting right back into the swing of it. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. We can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

She wasn't taking this seriously. "Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last" She fell to her knees.

"Are you all right?"

Cassandra nodded. "I'm fine. I'm dying, but that's fine."

"I can take you to the city."

"No, you won't." Cassandra told us

"Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me any more. You're right, Docto". It's time to die, and that's good.

Jace took her hand and lead her towards the door. "Come on. There's one last thing we can do."

Then we took her back to the party, where she was last told she was beautiful. "Thank you."

"Just go." Jace told her, cuddled into my side, her colourful hair now lose around her face. "And don't look back."

"Good luck." Rose told her.

And we watched until she died in her own arms, and then we left.


	14. Moonlight

Jace:

Rose and I were both in denim, though I had on shorts, a strappy top and my leather jacket, and she was in mini dungarees. "What do you think of this? Will it do? Jace looks amazing, you can actually see her legs." Yeah, and they weren't scarred any longer. I'd have to ask dad about that.

"In the late 1970s?" He scoffed, grabbing a CD and going to put it on. "You'd be better off in a bin bag. Hold on, listen to this." The music started playing and it bounced around the console room in blacks, blues and greens, and I loved it. "Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Number One in 1979."'

We both laughed at him, and he pulled me to dance with him. "You're a punk."

"It's good to be a lunatic." Well, I didn't get my voice from him...

"That's what you are, dad. A big old punk with a bit of rockabillly thrown in. Perfect Rocker dad."

He just grinned, pulled me close into a hug. It was him, a different him, but his hugs were still the best. "Would you like to see him, my Jacey Jacey Jay???"

Wait, what? "How'd you mean? In concert?"

"What else is a TARDIS for?" He laughed, letting go of me and turning the music up. "I can take you to the Battle of Trafalgar, the first anti-gravity Olympics, Caesar crossing the Rubicon or Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st November, 1979. What do you think?"

Rose and I grinned. "Sheffield it is."

"Hold on tight."

Dad started beating the rhythm of the song onto the console as we went, little gold bursts through the rest of the song, and the amber of the TARDIS. "Stop!"

And then we were thrown to the floor as we finished, and he just got right back up, hauling me with him. "1979. Hell of a year. China invades Vietnam. The Muppet Movie. Love that film. Margaret Thatcher. Urgh. Skylab falls to Earth, with a little help from me. Nearly took off my thumb." We were walking out of the TARDIS now and he was still going. "And I like my thumb. I need my thumb. I'm very attached to-" Rifles were cocked in our faces and he moved us behind him. "My thumb."

The light of the place around us was too dark, far too dark to be the 20th century. And we were surrounded by the red coats. "1879, Dad."

"Same difference." He shrugged.

"You will explain your presence. And the nakedness of these girls."

At which point he started speaking with a Scottish accent. "Are we in Scotland?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "How can you be ignorant of that?"

"Oh, I'm, I'm dazed and confused. I've been chasing this, this wee naked child over hill and over dale when she took my daughter to bargain. Isn't that right, ya timorous beastie?"

And Rose tried it. "Och, aye! I've been oot and aboot."

"No, don't do that." She tried again. "No, really don't. Really."

"Will you identify yourself, sir?"

"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon, from the township of Balamory. I have my credentials, if I may." He got out the psychic paper. "As you can see, a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself. This is my daughter Jaclyn, apprentice nurse." I didn't think so.

And then a strong, English voice came from the nearby carriage. "Let them approach."

The leader red coat hesitated. "I don't think that's wise, ma'am."

"Let them approach."

"You will approach the carriage, and show all due deference."

A footman opened the door to reveal the Imperial Widow as we approached. "Jace,Rose, might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith."

Holy... I was wearing denim shorts and a thin top, and there she was... I used a quick sound manipulation on my voice so I sounded as Scottish as dad. "Jace Smith, Ma'am. And my apologies for being so naked."

"I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me. But you, Doctor. Show me these credentials." He held up the paper again. "Why didn't you say so immediately? It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my Protector."

Which was news to him. "Does it? Yes, it does. Good. Good. Then let me ask - why is Your Majesty travelling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?"

It looked like she was sucking lemons. "A tree on the line."

"An accident?" I asked her, frowning a little.

"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned."

Dad raised an eyebrow. "An assassination attempt?"

"What, seriously?" Rose asked her. "There's people out to kill ya?"

"I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun."

The Captain trotted nearer on his horse. "Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence. We've sent word ahead. He'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow."

"This Doctor and his timorous beasties will come with us."

He bowed slowly. "Yes, Ma'am. We'd better get moving - it's almost nightfall."

"Indeed." The Queen smiled. "And there are stories of wolves in these parts. Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think. Drive on!"

We walked with the rest of the people behind the carriage, dad holding my hand and Rose linking arms with him the other side. "It's funny though, because you say assassination and you just think of Kennedy and stuff. Not her."

He considered something for a moment. "1879? She's had, oh, six attempts on her life?"

"And I'll tell you something else." I laughed, looking at them both. I'd grown, I was the same height as Rose now, I hadn't realised. "We just met Queen Victoria!"

"I know!"

"What a laugh!"

Rose grinned. "She was just sitting there."

"Like a stamp." Dad and I said together, and he kissed my head.

"I want her to say we are not amused." Oh, this wasn't going to end well. "I bet you five quid I can make her say it."

Dad made a pained face. "Well, if we gambled on that, it'd be an abuse of my privileges of traveller in time."

"Ten quid?"

"Done." Brilliant.

DW

We reached the house and then a man came out to meet the Queen. "Your Majesty."

"Sir Robert." She nodded her head a little. "My apologies for the emergency. And how is Lady Isobel?"

Robert hesitated for a moment, and I could see the worry in his voice. He was hiding something. "She's indisposed, I'm afraid. She's gone to Edinburgh for the season. And she's taken the cook with her. The kitchens are barely stocked. I wouldn't blame Your Majesty if you wanted to ride on."

"Oh, not at all. I've had quite enough carriage exercise." Because sitting on your arse was really called exercise. "And this is charming, if rustic. It's my first visit to this house. My late husband spoke of it often. The Torchwood Estate. Now, shall we go inside? And please excuse the naked girls."

"Sorry." We muttered.

"She's a feral child." The Doctor said, patting Rose's shoulder. "I bought her for sixpence in old London Town as my daughters hand maiden. It's was her or the Elephant Man, so"

Rose sent him a look. "Thinks he's funny but I'm so not amused. What do you think, Ma'am?"

But she was having none of it. "It hardly matters. Shall we proceed?"

"So close."

We were then waiting as the Queen went inside and then two of the red coats, similar to red shirts, took a small, locked box from the carriage and carried it to the house. "So what's in there, then?" I asked, brushing my still colourful hair out of my face as they passed me. I probably should have waited, Dad was really not amused.

"Property of the Crown. You will dismiss any further thoughts, ma'am. The rest of you go to the rear of the house. Assume your designated positions."

They all listened, and did as they were told. And I could see dad wishing that his companions did that. Then we were given a tour of the house, leading right up to the massive observatory all the way up the top of the house. "This, I take it, is the famous Endeavour." The Queen asked, looking at the massive bronze telescope.

"All my father's work." Sir Robert agreed. "Built by hand in his final years. Became something of an obsession. He spent his money on this rather than caring for the house or himself."

Dad smiled. "I wish I'd met him. I like him. That thing's beautiful. Can I?"

"Help yourself."

"What did he model it on?" He asked, and pressed his eye to the scope, looking through.

But Robert sighed. "I know nothing about it. To be honest, most of us thought him a little, shall we say, eccentric. I wish now I'd spent more time with him and listened to his stories." Everyone wished that once it was too late to be changed.

"It's a bit rubbish. How many prisms has it got? Way too many. The magnification's gone right over the top. That's stupid kind of-" He broke off and lent over to Rose and I, who were turning our shut up glares to eleven. "Am I being rude again?" We nodded emphatically. "But it's pretty. It's very pretty."

"And the imagination of it should be applauded."'

So Rose tactfully tried again. "Mmm. Thought you might disapprove, Your Majesty. Stargazing. Isn't that a bit fanciful? You could easily not be amused, or something? No?" Seriously? Well, she wasn't using a sound manipulation field to change her accent. Thanks for pretending to be Scottish, dear father.

But Victoria was still having none of it. "This device surveys the infinite work of God. What could be finer? Sir Robert's father was an example to us all. A polymath, steeped in astronomy and sciences, yet equally well versed in folklore and fairytales."

And that made me grin. "Stars and magic. I like him more and more."

"Oh, my late husband enjoyed his company." Queenie nodded, looking at it carefully. "Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe Coburg." Bavaria then. "When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported."

"So, what's this wolf, then?"

Robert looked sheepish. "It's just a story."

So do what a story is supposed to do. Continue. "Then tell it."

"It's said that-"

And then one of the servants interrupted. "Excuse me, sir. Perhaps her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark."

He looked relieved. "Of course. Yes, of course."

"And then supper." Vicky smiled slightly. "And could we find some clothes for Miss Tyler and Jaclyn?"' For gods sake, I hated that name. "I'm tired of nakedness."

Rose was relentless. "It's not amusing, is it?"

She altogether ignored her. "Sir Robert, your wife must have left some clothes, some may be small enough of the Doctor's daughter as well. See to it. We shall dine at seven, and talk some more of this wolf. After all, there is a full moon tonight."

Robert looked so, so sad. "So there is, Ma'am."

DW

Rose and I were left to work on our clothes, alone, but I just grabbed a long flowing underskirt from the first one and wore it with my top, and shoved the jacket on again. They'd be damned if I was wearing a corset. Rose was having more fun choosing, so I left her too it and was lead back to dad in the dining room, where I was to be sat next to him.

"Your companion begs an apology, Doctor, Miss Jaclyn. Her clothing has somewhat delayed her." We were told when we'd been waiting a while and the food was being brought out.

The Doctor smiled slyly, stroking my hair absently and I rested my head into his hand. "Oh, that's all right. Save her a wee bit of ham."

Vicky smiled. "The feral child could probably eat it raw."

"Very wise, Ma'am. Very witty."

We looked at her Captain of the guard. "Slightly witty, perhaps. I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited. I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury."

He blushed a little. "Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am."

"Besides, we're all waiting on Sir Robert." I smiled, nibbling on the veggies. "Come, sir. You promised us a tale of nightmares."

Vicky nodded a little, smiling. "Indeed. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction."

"You must miss him."

"Very much. Oh, completely. And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent, and we must wait. Come." She looked at Robert and he looked like he wanted hide. "Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."

But he took a deep breath and started. "The story goes back three hundred years. Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and devoured."

Reynolds just shook his head, tucking into his dinner. "Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves. Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that."

"But sometimes a child goes missing. Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead."

Oh, wow... "Are there descriptions of the creature?"

"Oh, yes, Miss Jaclyn." Robert nodded, looking at the both of us. "Drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."

Ah, we'd reached the modern craze of Twilight, Vampires and Werewolves. "A werewolf?"

"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it was fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose." Well, that was interesting. "I should have listened. His work was hindered. He made enemies. There's a monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations."

Victoria just shrugged. "Perhaps they thought his work ungodly."

The man didn't look up from the table. "That's what I thought. But now I wonder. What if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet? What if they turned from God and worshipped the wolf?"

"And what if they were with us right now?"

What? "What is the meaning of this?"

The Captain of the guard stood up, staring at the man, hand on side arm. "Explain yourself, Sir Robert!"

"What's happening?" I asked, dad getting to his feet before pulling me with him.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, they've got my wife."

Oh my God. "Dad, Rose! Where's Rose? Where is she? Sir Robert, come on!"

Captain REynolds kept his gun trained on the chanting monk. "Tell me, sir. I demand to know your intention!" Nope, still speaking Latin. "What is it that you want?"

"The throne." And then we were running after the Queen, and I followed the sound of people to where the others were, finding Rose and a lot of servants.

"Where the hell have you been?" Rose demanded, staring at all of us as I sent a sonic wave through all of the chains, letting everyone run free.

But dad was looking at the werewolf as it was splintering the cage. "Oh, that's beautiful."

"Come on, go. Get out!"

And then it was out and I grabbed him, shouting to the others. "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" We made it to the gun store and then the Stewart started handing them out to all the men. Sexist.

"It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths." Thanks, dad. That made sense. "Did it say what it wanted?"

"The Queen, the Crown, the throne - you name it." Well, that was good.

But then the wolf was out and we were running again, away from the men who stayed to shoot repetitively at it. "All right, you men. We should retreat upstairs. Come with me." I told them, hearing the thrumming heartbeat of the creature burning through the entire place in a dark red. Blood red.

But the man glared at me. "I'll not retreat, not at a woman's request, or a girls for that matter. The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault." Yes, because firing lots of lead and pewter bullets would stop a creature from the stars.

"I'm telling you, come upstairs!"

"And I'm telling you, Miss, I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." He stepped back into the corridor. "It must have crawled away to die."

And then he was hoisted away, and dad yanked me back to run as the sounds of ripping wet meat resonated bright pink and yellow followed us, turning my stomach to acid like eating meat itself. "There's nothing we can do, Jacey!"

We found Sir Robert and Vicky in the dining room again. "Your Majesty, we've got to get out. But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?"

She paused a moment. "Captain Reynolds disposed of him." Then why was the trail of the gun leading to your purse, dear?

"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut." I told her, kicking off the heels that I'd put on and dropped the skirt so I could move better. "Pardon me, Your Majesty. You'll have to leg it out of a window."

"Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first," Robert told her. "The better to assist Her Majesty's egress."

She smiled a little. "A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh."

I got fed up with my voice changer and dropped it. "Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" But they opened fire when he tried to leave. "I reckon the monkey boys want us to stay inside. Dad, can I-"

"Jace, don't even try it." Great.

Vicky really didn't look amused. "Do they know who I am??"

"Yeah, that's why they want you." Rose told her. "The wolf's lined you up for a, a biting."

"Stop this talk." She snapped. "There can't be an actual wolf."

And then it howled and we started running again. "What do we do?"

"We run."

Really dad? "Is that it?"

"You got any silver bullets, Jaclyn?"

"Not on me, no. I can always-"

"There we are then, we run." He told me, pulling me along with him. "Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigourous jog. Good for the health. Come on!"

"Come on! Come on!"

"I'll take this position and hold it." Reynolds told us, stopping as we went up the stairs. "You keep moving, for God's sake! Your Majesty, I went to look for the property and it was taken. The chest was empty."

"I have it. It's safe."

He nodded little at the Queen. "Then remove yourself, Ma'am. Doctor , you and your child stand as Her Majesty's Protectors. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the crown."

How stupid yet brave could you get?! "Bullets can't stop it!"

"They'll buy you time. Now run!"

We did, hearing him empty his revolver into the wolf before it ripped him apart as we reached the library. "Barricade the door."

"Wait a minute." I told them, seeing too much colour for anything to make sense. "Shush, shush, wait a minute. Hold your breath, everyone!" They all did and there was a single, lonely silver howl that jigzagged to the moon and back. "It's stopped."

Dad nodded, checking me over quickly. "It's gone. Is this the only door?"

"Yes." Then saw the other one. "No!" And then we barricaded it and I deadlocked the door.

"I don't understand." Rose said quickly and quietly. "What's stopping it?"

I took a deep breath at the same time as dad. "Something inside this room. What is it? Why can't it get in?"

But our friend just gave us a smile. "I'll tell you what, though. Werewolf."

"I know. You all right?"

She nodded, giving me a quick hug. "I'm okay, yeah."

And Robert was grovelling. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault. I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"

"Well, they were bald, athletic. Your wife's away, I just thought you were happy." I laughed, shaking my head a little.

Rose tried again. "I'll tell you what though, Ma'am, I bet you're not amused now."

"Do you think this is funny?"

Not the best timing. "No, Ma'am. I'm sorry."

Vicky still wanted answers. "What, exactly, I pray tell me, someone, please. What exactly is that creature?"

"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's a more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform."

"And should I trust you, Miss? You who change your voice so easily, as does your father? What happened to your accents?" Ah... "I'll not have it. No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world."

And I left it at that, sniffing the door and seeing there was a light green glow to it, with white flecks. I always saw that at Christmas. "Mistletoe." I frowned, looking back over at dad and Rob. "Sir Robert, did you father put that there?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose."

"On the other door, too. No, a carving wouldn't be enough. I wonder." Dad then licked the door, though I could have told him that there was mistletoe there. "Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood like a varnish. How clever was your dad? I love him. Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."

OK, what was he on about now? "And the wolf's allergic to it?"

He shook his head. "Well, it thinks it is. The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things."

"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor, and we still don't possess an actual weapon."

Dad wasn't exactly taking any crap much at the moment. "Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?"

"Being rude again, dad."

He didn't care. "Good. I meant that one." Then dad turned away from us and faced the bookshelves, putting on his glasses. I didn't need mine any more, I could turn it on and off now. "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have." He threw one to me and Rose. "Arm yourself."

And then we were reading, though I was just skipping over a lot as I could see what was useful just if I opened the book. And then I read aloud when I found what we wanted. "In the year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit. That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the monastery."

"But that's over three hundred years ago." Rose said, looking at the page as I moved back to let them. "What's it been waiting for?"

He was pacing again. "Maybe just a single cell survived. Adapting slowly down the generations, it survived through the humans, host after host after host."

Robert frowned a little. "But why does it want the throne?"

"That's what it wants." Rose sighed. "It said so. The, the Empire of the Wolf."

Dad was playing with my hair again, something he'd started doing since he changed face, and he used this to try and calm himself. "Imagine it. The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam, leaving history devastated in its wake"

"Sir Robert. If I am to die here."

We all glanced at the Queen. "Don't say that, Your Majesty."

But she was serious. "I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."

Seriously? Now?"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables."

"Thank you for your opinion, young lady, but there is nothing more valuable than this."

Then she took out a massive diamond as big as my fist. "Is that the Koh-I-Noor?" Rose asked, walking like a zombie towards it.

Dads face lit up. "Oh, yes. The greatest diamond in the world."

"Given to me as the spoils of war." Victoria sighed, looking at the carbon in her hand. "Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."

I gave her a small smile, seeing something in it and moving closer. "Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough. Can I?" I took hold of it, pressing a small amount of sound into it, and it hummed in a way only dad and I could feel, sense. "That is so beautiful. Its perfectly resonating, singing."

"How much is that worth?"

"They say the wages of the entire planet for a whole week."

Rose gave a small laugh. "Good job my mum's not here. She'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that thing."

Now that I would pay to see. "And she'd win."

"Where is the wolf? I don't trust this silence."

I glanced back at the Queen, stopping the vibrations to conserve my energy. "Why do you travel with it?"

"My annual pilgrimage." She told me, taking it back. "I'm taking it to Helier and Carew, the Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting."

What, why? "Oh, but it's perfect."

Vicky gave it a small smile. "My late husband never thought so."

"Now, there's a fact." Dad told me, still playing with my hair. He secretly liked the colour. "Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-I-Noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting".

"He always said the shine was not quite right. But he died with it still unfinished."

"Unfinished. Oh, yes." And now he was pacing again, brilliant. "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research, and your husband, Ma'am, he came here and he sought the perfect diamond, on that resonates and hums. Hold on, hold on. All these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected. Oh, my head, my head. What if this house, it's a trap for you. Is that right, Ma'am?"

"Obviously."

And I got where he was going. If the man became wolf to the certain frequency of the moon, and the diamond was able to match this, you could put them together and aimed at the wolf it would transfer him into pure moonlight. "At least, that's what the wolf intended. But, what if there's a trap inside the trap?"

"Explain yourself, Jaclyn."

"My name is Jace, and I'm more than just a kid. What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories. They dared to imagine all this was true, and they planned against it, laying the real trap not for you but for the wolf." I thin yellow cracks fall down with the plaster dust from the skylight. "That wolf there." And then it started to shatter.

Dad leaped to action and dragged me out, and everyone else followed. "Out! Out! Out! Get to the observatory!" It caught up with Rose, but one of the maids turned up with a bucket of something and it retreated as it was doused with the strong amount of mistletoe. "Good shot."

"It was mistletoe." No kidding.

"Isobel!" Rob and Issy kissed. "Now, get back downstairs."

They went back to hide in the kitchens and we were left running back to the observatory. "No mistletoe in these doors because your father wanted the wolf to get inside." I shouted, starting to pace myself now, and Dad waited outside with Robert a moment before coming in and closing the door. "Your Majesty, the diamond."

"For what purpose?"

"The purpose it was designed for." She handed it to me and I put it where it was supposed to be, and started charging it ready as dad and Rose wheeled the telescope ready.

"You said this thing doesn't work." Rose asked him, looking between us. "What's that light, Jace?"

Well, I would have though that it was obvious. "Moonlight. It doesn't work as a telescope because that's not what it is. It's a light chamber. It magnifies the light rays like a weapon. We've just got to power it up. And the diamond needs to hum with perfect energy to project it."

"It won't work. There's no electricity." And then she replayed what I'd said. "Moonlight. But the wolf needs moonlight. It's made by moonlight."

"You're seventy percent water but you can still drown. Come on! Come on!" The moon shone down into the telescope lens and bounced between the prisms, magnifying as it went, and I could hear the humming of the light as the wolf got in, going for Vicky. Then I managed to get the light to hit the diamond and it hit the creature, lifting it and held it half turned, both man and animal.r

He looked right at me, and I saw the pain in his eyes. "Make it brighter, please. Let me go."

I glanced at dad and he nodded before I upped the frequency slightly, letting it magnify further, and it disappeared into pure moonlight. And Victoria was looking at her wrist. "Your Majesty? Did it bite you?"

"No, it's, it's a cut, that's all." Liar. But we couldn't exactly call her out on that, so we all turned in, and mourned the dead.

DW

In the morning, we were called to the drawing room, where dear old Vicky was waiting with a sword. Were were being knighted. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Doctor of TARDIS. By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Dame Rose of the Powell Estate. By the power invested in my by the Church and the State, I dub thee Dame Jaclyn of TARDIS, Defender of the Light." Oh, wow... That was a hell of a title. "You may stand."

"Many thanks, Ma'am." Dad and I smiled, wrapping his arm around me.

"Thanks." Rose grinned after. "They're never going to believe this back home."

And I wanted to tell Vicky just how much her husband loved her. "Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving no message from the great beyond. I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life. He's protecting you even now, Ma'am, from beyond the grave."

She nodded a little. "Indeed. Then you may think on this also. That I am not amused."

Oh, come on! That meant she won and dad would never live it down! "Yes!"

"Not remotely amused. And henceforth I banish you."

We all stared at her. "I'm sorry?"

"I rewarded you, Sir Doctor, Dame Jaclyn, and now you are exiled from this empire, never to return. I don't know what you are, the three of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars and magic and think it fun. But your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death, and I will not allow it. You will leave this shores and you will reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so far from all that is good, and how much longer you will survive this terrible life. Now leave my world, and never return."

There wasn't really much we could do there, so we just hitched a lift with a guy called Dougal back towards the TARDIS. "No, but the funny thing is, Queen Victoria did actually suffer a mutation of the blood. It's historical record." I told them, walking backwards to look at them. "She was haemophiliac, read about it when I was stuck in that library. They used to call it the Royal Disease. But it's always been a mystery because she didn't inherit it. Her mum didn't have it, her dad didn't have it. It came from nowhere."

"What, and you're saying that's a wolf bite?"

Dad smiled a little, giving me a high five. "Well, maybe haemophilia is just a Victorian euphemism."

Rose didn't quite believe us. "For werewolf?"

"Could be."

"Queen Victoria's a werewolf?"

Dad nodded again. "Could be. And her children had the Royal Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip." I mock bit him and he pushed me away fondly. "Get out of it, love."

Our friend was still having trouble getting to grips with it. "So, the Royal Family are werewolves?"

He considered it. "Well, maybe not yet. I mean, a single wolf cell could take a hundred years to mature. Might be ready by, oh, early 21st century?"

"Nah, that's just ridiculous!" And now Rose paused. "Mind you, Princess Anne."

"We'll say no more."

"And if you think about it, they're very private." I told her, knowing how everything was organised. "They plan everything in advance. They could schedule themselves around the moon. We'd never know. And they like hunting!"

We went into the TARDIS and Rose had a thought. "They love blood sports. Oh my God, they're werewolves!"


	15. No Rainbow Without Rain

The Doctor:

"Hit me, hit me, hit me with your rhythm stick." I sang to myself, lying under the console as I worked on it. Jace and Rose had gone to bed a while ago, and I never really slept, so decided to have a go at turning off the inbuilt timing, so no time really passed. It meant Jace and Rose would only age when we were out of the TARDIS.

Problem was, I couldn't see time passing, so I didn't know if it worked, so was just tinkering by this point. Until the cat decided to come and lie on my face. "Rain, you're supposed to be with Jace!" I told her, getting up and moving the tiny cat, who like Jace, had been adopted off the streets and had become part of the family.

Rain had loved Jack, but every single ounce of me had to leave him because what he was would have driven me insane. The cat also hated Rose, but Rose was more of a dog person. Strange. "Rain, you're not supposed to be here."

She meowed plentifully, then jumped off me and started walking back into the rest of the TARDIS, then looked back to me expectantly. "Oh, am I supposed to follow you, am I?" I asked her, getting to my feet. "I thought I was the intelligent Time Lord here, not you." Rain just meowed again, and stalked off, long tail waving in the air. "Oh, you're full of yourself, aren't you?"

I followed her back through the TARDIS, and heard music coming light and airy through the corridors, and realised Jace couldn't sleep again, so had come back to her favourite room. Her piano skills had tripled since her awakening, and she was harder on herself when she messed up, because she was pure sound. "Ah, is this what you wanted to show me, little cat?"

"Meow mow meow mow." Well, obviously. "Meow Meow Meow mow."

"Rain, she's 15, and she doesn't sleep walk."

"Meow meow meow."

"Seriously. Rain, she's fine, she just can't sleep." I followed the cat into the music room and saw her sat at the piano. "Jace? Love, come on, bed." She kept playing, and the tablet wasn't on yet she was playing something I'd never heard her play. "OK, Rain, you win. She's playing piano in her sleep."

The cat just meowed back and jumped onto the piano, curled into a ball, and fell asleep. Well, that was useful. "Jace? Love, don't freak out, I'm just going to pick you up, OK?" Nothing happened, she just kept playing, soft and simple, but like the northern lights were in here. I carefully scooped her up and she cuddled into me, and Rain got frustrated when she had to get up and follow us again.

Her room, was a tip. Jace had always been tidy, and she hated anything not being in what she called a harmonious balance because it gave her a headache, and now, it was giving me a headache because there were clothes and books everywhere, her guitar lying on the floor, the plec next to it. "What have you been up to, Dear?" I asked my little girl as I lay her on the bed. "Your mind is so troubled."

"Meow, meow mow meow."

"Rain, I'm not going into her head, that's not a good thing to do. She'll wake up later."

This cat was relentless. "Meow meow meow meow meow."

"Come on, its just a side affect of these tablets. She'll be fine." She finally gave up and just fell asleep, nestled in a pile of clothes. "OK, Jace, whenever you're ready." Her nose started bleeding. "Jace? Jace, wake up. Come on, wake up!"

She stirred, her eyes flickering open, staring sightlessly up. "Dad? Dad, my head..." Her eyes were now swirling with different colours again, purples and red and blues, before settling on the blue. "Theres something in my head, a song, and its so loud..."

"It's OK, just go back to sleep." I whispered, pressing my fingers lightly to her temple and making her brain shut down for a while as Rain came back over, nuzzling her face. "OK, you win, cat, I'm going into her head. But you're coming with me."

I moved one of my hands to the cat, who I had a habit of arguing with as I spoke cat, and kept the other on Jace as I pushed carefully into her head, and heard the music as I reached where she was inside. It was the streets again, a long, dark alley with the rain coming down hard above us. "Jace? Jace, where are you?"

There was a crash and someone fell out of the bin next to me, a girl with long tawny hair, pale skin and eyes the colour of Rain. "Ow! Come on, how come you get to land safely?!"

"Rain?!"

"Well, who else were you expecting, Doctor?" She paused. "Hang on, fingers! I actually have fingers, and thumbs, opposable thumbs!"

This was ridiculous. "Are you telling me this whole time you've been in my TARDIS, and staying with my little girl, you've been a woman stuck as a cat?"

Rain nodded. "Yeah, thats about it. I got stuck like this after a genetic experiment on my world, and when they couldn't get me back to human form, they stuck me here to get rid of the evidence."

"And you just decided to tell me this now?"

The woman shrugged, running her long fingers through her hair. "Would you have believed me?" Fair point. "Jace has been having nightmares recently, even though she's taking those pills you gave her. They smell like crap by the way." Oh, everyones a critic.

"This is the alley I first met her in. If she's having a nightmare again, then this is probably her thinking I'm abandoning her." There was movement further up the alley. "Jace? Love, where are you?" We both ran up over and saw her making her way back through the Powell Estate through the rain, her hair up in that hat again, tumbling down out of it. "JACE!"

"Just leave me alone! You left me, everyone leaves me!" She screamed back, running faster, but I cut through the flats, cutting her off and she crashed into us both and we went tumbling to the ground. "Let go of me! Doctor, let go!"

But I held her tight, and refused to let go. "Jace! This is a dream, it's not real!"

Rain, or whatever her real name was, was also holding her, though more like a mum, stroking her hair and whispering things until she stopped fighting. "It's OK, Jacey, it's OK..."

"Why are you here, you left me. You left me months ago..."

"I didn't leave you, you're just dreaming. You're in the TARDIS, I promise."

She pulled free, leaning against a wall, knowing we'd catch her again if she tried to run, but not wanting us to touch her. "That's not what I meant. I ran because you left me when you changed. You died, and you became someone else."

Oh, the regeneration... I thought she'd come to terms with exactly what happened, how I'd been close to dying but I changed to stay with her, to make sure she had a dad and that she would't be alone in the world again. To her, even though she knew it was still me, it felt as though she'd lost me. "Jace..."

But then Rain came to the rescue. "The Doctor, your dad, he's still here, love. This is him, and he became this person to be with you. He loves you more than anything, and if he had to die for you, he would. He just didn't have to."

Jake's eyes finally found the woman, her eyes confused. "W, who are you? I don't know you."

"Well, maybe if I meowed that would make more sense to you." Rain laughed, walking a little closer. "I'm Rain, though my real name is Imogen. You can call me Rain though, if that makes you feel better." Imogen, and she got turned into a cat... Oh! I was so thick!

"Imogen Marcle! Disappeared October 31st, 25 years ago back on Hoenn!" I cried, looking at her. "No one ever knew what happened to you, your daughter is still searching!"

"Well, been a long time since anyone called me that. And I know, I tried to find her, but I got stuck on Earth. Well, until you took me in, but after that I couldn't really tell you who I was. The fact you could understand me was baffling enough."

"Well, you're famous, well, I say famous, more infamous, as no one off world knew if you were a myth or real." Jace was trying to sneak off. "Hey, stay. You're asleep, Jace. I won't leave you. I will never leave you, because you're my little girl. Well, you're not so little now, more growing into an amazing Time Lord woman. I would have died to save you, and I would do it a thousand times just to make sure you're safe, though for a while, I don't have to worry. Because I'll always be here for you."

She paused, looking back at us as the rain slowly stopped, the sun rising over the east side, lighting her face as she became more like the Jace we knew, skinny jeans, multi-coloured hair, and clean, glowing face. Just as she woke up.

DW

"Ok, are you ready?" I asked the cat, who was now sat in a machine in the lab. Rose and Jace were in the main part, looking in confusion. Jace was feeling better now, and she understood regeneration a little better, though she admitted the idea of suddenly becoming someone else terrified her. "And, 5, 4, 3, 2..."

The machine switched on and there was a blinding light coming from the chamber she was sat in and we all looked away, Jace hiding her eyes in my chest.

When it stopped, we looked back to see a woman lying on the floor of it, naked, but human. Well, mostly, as she had a long, tortoise shell tail, with matching ears on top of her head, her collar still around her neck. So it mostly worked, I'd call that a success.

"Rain?" Jace asked, walking a little closer, before throwing a dressing gown over her naked form as she stirred. "Rain, are you OK?"

She sat up slowly, pulling the fabric around her shoulders, before frowning as she felt her tail, looking behind herself to try and spot it. "Doctor! I still have a tail." Now she felt the ears. "What?!"

I looked sheepish, helping her to her feet. "Sorry, I should have said, there was a change your DNA could have been changed with how long you spent as a cat. I can't get rid of them, because they're a part of you."

"Oh... Um, right. So, what now?"

"You travel with us, right?" Jace asked her, sitting down on a work bench. "I mean, you can actually come on proper adventures now."

But Imogen shook her head, looking at the girl. "Jace, I've been missing for 25 years. My daughter will be about 30 now, she'd think I abandoned her. I need to go back to her."

"What? But... Why can't she come with us too?" She looked at me now. "Dad?"

Oh, Jacey... "Jace, Rain, Imogen, came to us for help, and she deserves to go back to her family, before she's forgotten."

Jace looked upset, but she nodded. "I guess. Come on, I'll help you walk to the wardrobe."

They headed off and Rose and I went to the console room, landing us on Hoenn before they came back. We lost a pet, but Rain got her life and family.

Good luck, Imogen.


	16. Happiness and Sadness

Jace:

I was at school. I hadn't been to school since I was 8, and now I was freaking a year 11. "Good morning, class. Are we sitting comfortably?" Oh, and dad was my teacher."So, physics. Physics, eh? Physics. Physics. Physics! Physics. Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics. I hope one of you is getting all this down, Jacey." Don't you dare. "Okay let's see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?" Two of us put our hands up, me and a boy in glasses. And dad knew I knew as he taught me. "Yes, er, what's your name?"

"Milo."

"Milo! Off you go."

He spoke in a dead voice, incredibly matter of factly. "They'd repel each other because they have the same charge."

"Correctamundo!" Oh God. I was teaching him about normal teacher etiquette after this. "A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again. Question two. I coil up a thin piece of microwire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this. How do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?" Milo and I again."Someone else, not my daughter. No? Milo, go for it."

"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and a voltmeter."

"Two to Milo." I smiled a little, then looked at the smart boy. "Right then, Milo, tell me this. True or false. The greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."

No hesitation. "False."

Dads turn. "What is non-coding DNA?"

"DNA that doesn't code for a protein."

My go. "Sixty five thousand nine hundred and eighty three times five?"

"Three hundred and twenty nine thousand nine hundred and fifteen."

We asked one together. "How do you travel faster than light?"

"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of thirty six point seven recurring."

Our jaws dropped. But then it was lunch time and we had to go annoy Rose for the second day in a row, as she was a lunch lady. I was having packed lunches though, much to the schools annoyance. Not my fault that they didn't have a vegetarian option.

"Two days." Rose told us later when she came to wipe down the table.

"Sorry, could you just?" I pointed to the table, smiling. "There's a bit of gravy. No, no, just, just there."

She wiped it, but only because she had to. "Two days, we've been here."

"Blame your boyfriend. He's the one who put us onto this. And he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth. And that's Jace's level." Hey, I was a Time Lord, remember?

Rose wasn't all to bothered about this. "You eating those chips?"

"Yeah, they're a bit different." I wouldn't know.

She sat down with us, grabbing one and taking a bite. "I think they're gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this." It was gross and coated in animal fat.

"It's very well behaved, this place." More interested in the chips. "I thought there'd be happy slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones. Huh? Huh? Oh, yeah. Don't tell me I don't fit in." I could do that pretty easily.

Then the head dinner lady came over to tell off Rose. "You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting."

"I was just talking to this teacher and his daughter." We waved. "He doesn't like the chips. And you don't have any vegetarian food."

She wasn't impressed. "The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance. Now, get back to work."

"See?" Rose asked, walking back to the serving hatch. "This is me. Dinner lady."

Oh, this was too good to pass up. "I'll have the crumble." It was the only thing I can eat.

"I'm so going to kill you."

I had a free period next, as did dad, so I was allowed to come and sit with him in the main staff room, doing some far too easy biology home work, while Dad spoke to some history teacher. "Yesterday, I had a twelve year old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy in cubits."

"And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?"

Parsons nodded. "Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that."

"How's that weird?" Yes, dad, how was that weird?

"She never played. Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight." Thanks for waking me up for that by the way, dear father.

He took a mouthful of coffee, pretending to be innocent. "Hmm. The world is very strange."

Then Finch entered, and we all looked at him, dad standing behind my chair protectively, one hand on my shoulder. "Excuse me, colleagues, and Jace, of course. A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak. Don't spare my blushes."

The man left and dad was staring in wonder at this new comer, a pretty older lady with a shining around her, and she was definitely up to more than just a profile on our esteemed headmaster. "Hello."

"Oh, I should think so." Dad grinned, unable to contain some sort of childlike glee.

"And, you are?"

He was completely out of it, so I spoke. "Oh, um, this is my dad, John Smith, and I'm Jaclyn, but people call me Jace."

Sarah Jane paused for a moment. "John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name."

Dad, what did you do? "Well, it's a very common name." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"He was a very uncommon man. Nice to meet you, both of you."

Dad was still gushing. "Nice to meet you. Yes, very nice. More than nice. Brilliant."

"Er, so, er, have you worked here long?"

"No. Er, it's only my second day. We needed a new school for Jace because she's a little too smart, and I can be a bit over protective."

Sarah blinked a little. "Oh, you're new, then. So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." I smiled a little, hugging my arms around myself, my biology homework already finished.

"Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here."

"No. Good for you." She moved away from the scarily grinning dad, who was still staring after her. What was his problem? "Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith."

So we finished the day, waited for the night person to head off home, and then went back inside. "Oh, it's weird seeing school at night. It just feels wrong. When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school." Rose laughed, looking at all the dark classrooms, kenopsic andfore lone.

"All right, team." Dad said, then made a face. "Oh, I hate people who say team. Er, gang. Er, comrades. Anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen. Get a sample of that oil. Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers. Go and check out the Maths department. I'm going to look in Finch's office with Jace. Be back here in ten minutes."

Then he took my hand and we headed off, in the direction I could see another trail of sound, light blue and like an ocean wave.

It was Sarah Jane, the woman from earlier and who was freaking out over finding the TARDIS. "Hello, Sarah Jane."

"It's you. Oh, Doctor Oh, my God, it's you, isn't it. You've regenerated. And your companion..." Uh, not a companion, Ta.

He nodded, holding me close still. "Yeah. Half a dozen times since we last met."

"You look incredible."

Dad grinned at her. "So do you." Oh for gods sake.

But the woman wasn't all that impressed. "Huh. I got old. What are you doing here? With a school girl." Not a school girl.

"Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. We couldn't resist. What about you?"

"The same." She laughed. "I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must have died."

He sighed, looking right at her, his warm eyes sad. "I lived. Everyone else died."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone died, Sarah."

"I can't believe it's you." Mickey screamed. "Okay, now I can!"

Rose ran up then as we were running, me leading as I saw the electric blue of his scream zigzagging through the corridors. "Did you hear that?" Now she saw Sarah Jane. "Who's she?"

"Rose, Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane, Rose."

"Hi. Nice to meet you. You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger. Again, I reference the kid, who is actually a student."

Oh, I'd had enough. " I'm not his assistant, and neither is Rose. Jace Smith-Monroe, 57% Time Lord with the ability to manipulate sound. I'm the Doctor's daughter."

And now she raised her eyes at Rose. "No? Get you, tiger."

We found Mickey in the maths department, so at least he didn't get lost, but he was surrounded by rather gross things. "Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell on me."

"Oh, my God, they're rats." Rose grimaced, her nose wrinkling. "Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats."

"And you decided to scream." Dad mocked.

"It took me by surprise!"

"Like a little girl?"

"It was dark! I was covered in rats!"

I decided to be a little mean, only because I was frustrated over Sarah Jane, who had waltzed in and dad only had eyes for her, not even Rose. "Nine, maybe ten years old. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt."

"Hello, can we focus?" Rose asked us, because we were getting way of topic. "Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?"

Sarah Jane looked at her like she was about 6. "Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them. Or maybe you and the kid haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you two?"

"Excuse me, no one dissects rats in school anymore." I glared. "They haven't done that for years. Where are you from, the dark ages? I'm 15, but like I'm said, I'm a Time Lord."

Dad was looking a little wary now. "Anyway, moving on. Everything started when Mister Finch arrived. We should go and check his office."

We started walking that way, and I was walking inbetween Rose and Sarah Jane, in a way that wasn't violently hostile, but it would definitely going to end up in a cat fight if the wrong words were said. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you?"

"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor."

"Oh." I frowned in mock puzzlement, walking backwards to look at her. "Well, he's never mentioned you. Only mentioned my mum, Lucie."

Dad realised we were digging him a hole with his white angel Sarah Jane. "Oh, I must've done. Sarah Jane. Mention her all the time."

Rose and I paused. "Hold on. Sorry. Never."

"What, not even once?" She asked us as we went around a corner. "He didn't mention me even once?"

Now that was how you did that, and when we reached the office, Rose and I were a little happy with the corner we'd backed them both into. Never underestimate how I worked, because I got jealous, and she was really just trying to smarm us. "Maybe those rats were food." I muttered, looking in the office.

"Food for what?"

"Rose, you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school?" Dad asked her, moving me closer to him. "Well, they do."

There were 13 massive bats hanging from the ceiling, and we all ran back out, Mickey terrified. "Iam not going back in there. No way."

"Those were teachers."

Well, surely it was obvious? "When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people. Come on." Dad and I headed back towards the doors, but I shoved my hands into his old leather jackets pockets when he tried to take on.

"Come on? You've got to be kidding!"

"We need the TARDIS. I've got to analyse that oil from the kitchen."

And of course, Sarah Jane came to the rescue there. "I might be able to help you there. I've got something to show you."

She showed us to her car, and dad grinned and laughed at the weird thing in the boot and I could see what was wrong with it. "K9! Jacey Smith, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, allow me to introduce K9. well, K9 Mark Three to be precise."

"Why does he look so disco?"

"Oi!" He pouted. "Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge. What's happened to him?" Could you not see? His battery charger was shot, meaning it was very slowly building up again, as well as the cabling rusting.

"Oh, one day, he just, nothing."

That didn't sound good. She was obviously not looking after it, hence the rust. "Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?"

"Well, it's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro." She snapped at me, as I tried to repair him, but I didn't want to use my ability so close to the school. We could be being watch. "Beside, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone."

Now dad was petting the metal dog. "Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you, eh?"

"Look, no offence, but could you two just stop petting for a minute?" Even Rose was getting annoyed. "Never mind the tin dog. We're busy."

We headed to a chippy, where Sarah Jane and dad started to try and fix K9, as Mickey and Rose got chips. "I thought of you on Christmas Day. This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead. I thought, oh yeah, bet he's up there."

"Right on top of it, yeah."

"And Jace and Rose?"

"They were there too. Jace spoke for the world, nearly saved them."

She paused for a moment, and I could see the darker blue of hurt in her voice as she continued. "Did I do something wrong, because you never came back for me. You just dumped me."

"I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed. Hell, if they knew Jace existed..." They didn't like humans then. But I was mostly Time Lord.

Dad didn't even look at her. "I waited for you. I missed you."

"Oh, you didn't need me. You were getting on with your life."

"You were my life. You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?" I could see her point.

He finally looked at her. "All those things you saw, do you want me to apologise for that?"

Sarah Jane hesitated for a moment. "No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back."

"Look at you, you're investigating. You found that school. You're doing what we always did."

She was really upset and dad wasn't doing anything to try and help. "You could have come back."

"I couldn't."

"Why not?" He didn't answer, and just kept working on completely the wrong part of K9. "It wasn't Croydon. Where you dropped me off, that wasn't Croydon."

He paused and then looked up. "Where was it?"

"Aberdeen."

"Right." He paused again. "That's next to Croydon, isn't it?"

I rolled my eyes at the pair of them, looking at the exact parts of K9 that needed fixing, before pressing my hand to the open, rusted side of him and sent a sonic pulse to repair all of him. "Done."

"Oh, hey. Now we're in business." Dad laughed, kissing my hair. "My clever Jacey."

"Master."

And now he was even more happy. "He recognises me."

"Affirmative. I also recognise your DNA print in the pulse that restored me, Master."

"That was me, K9. I'm Jace."

The tail wagged a little. "Thank you, Mistress Jace."

Dad smiled again, stroking my hair. "Rose, give us the oil."

She came over, looking equally jealous over Sarah Jane. "I wouldn't touch it, though. That dinner lady got all scorched."

"I'm no dinner lady." I couldn't help but giggle, and he shoved me fondly. "And I don't often say that, so shut up, Jace." He smeared a sample on the little probe. "Here we go. Come on, boy. Here we go."

"Oil. Ex ex ex extract. Ana ana analysing." OK, that voice needed a little tweeking.

Mickey was loving it. "Listen to him, man. That's a voice."

"Careful. That's my dog."

"Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil."

This meant something to dad. "They're Krillitanes."

"Is that bad, dad?" Sarah Jane was still confused over me being his daughter.

He nodded, taking my hand and squeezing it, more for his own piece of mind. "Very. Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad."

"And what are Krillitanes?"

"They're a composite race." He explained, now tracing my Time Lord name lightly over my hand, Calliope. "Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by. You've got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks."

"What're they doing here?"

I understood that. "It's the children. They're doing something to the children."

We headed back out of the shop and put K9 back in her car, while Rose and I stood with dad. "How many of us have there been travelling with you?"

"Does it matter?"

Rose nodded, not even looking at me. I was proof there was someone before her. "Yeah, it does, if I'm just the latest in a long line."

Dad narrowed his eyes at her. "As opposed to what?"

"I thought you and me were. I obviously got it wrong. I've been to the year five billion, right, but this? Now this is really seeing the future. You just leave us behind. Is that what you're going to do to me? Because I understood that there was someone else, this Lucie, Jace's mum, but it's been years. I thought there was a break between us, but there's probably been others inbetween."

"No. Not to you. Not to you and Jace."

How could he say that. "But Sarah Jane? You were that close to her once, and now you never even mention her. Why not? You barely ever tell me about mum!"

He looked right at me, his eyes so full of pain. "We don't age. we regenerate, Calliope. But humans decay." Now back at Rose. "You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you-" I got it. It hurt far too much to talk about mum because he loved her, and now he loved Rose.

"What, Doctor?"

"You can spend the rest of your life with us, but we can't spend the rest of ours with you. We have to live on. Alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords." Oh God... and we were the only two left. Forever, I would only constantly have dad, not a friend for longer than 70 years and I would watch them die...

"Time Lords." I heard a voice and looked up as a giant bat swooped down and dad grabbed me, holding me down quickly as it aimed for me.

It didn't touch any of us though. "Was that a Krillitane?"

Rose was stood with her arm around me as dad was looking at it fly off. "But it didn't even touch her. It just flew off. What did it do that for?"

DW

The next morning, we got back to the school, me not in the uniform this time, as I hated it. I hated being the same as everyone else, because part of me had always known I was different through the synaethesia. And now, I knew it was because I was a Time Lord. Jace,Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this if Jace can't get through." Rose held out her hand, but Sarah Jane got given the sonic. Smooth. "Mickey, surveillance. I want you outside."

"Just stand outside?"

Sarah threw him her car keys. "Here, take these you can keep K9 company."

It was too good to pass up. "Don't forget to leave the window open a crack."

"But he's metal!"

"I didn't mean for him." I winked and he got the joke before I looked back at dad with a worried expression. "What're you going to do?"

He hugged me quickly and kissed my hair. "It's time I had a word with Mister Finch. Stay safe, Jacey."

We separated, and Sarah was just trying to use the sonic while Rose and I just stood there. I could get through, I just wanted to see what she could do. Which wasn't very much. "It'snot working."

"My turn." I moved her aside, still holding the sonic and used my hands, emitting the right frequencies to get through a couple of fire walls.

"Used to work first time in my day."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Well, things were a lot simpler back then."

"Jace, Rose, can I give you a bit of advice?"

"I've got a feeling you're about to." I muttered, trying to see what the codes were in hte monitor, tiny little bursts of colour amongst the grey and black static of the screen.

And we were right, she kept talking anyway. "I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be, and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding-"

"I don't feel threatened by you, if that's what you mean." Rose told her, and I sat up a little, turning my colours off to see clearer.

"Right. Good. Because I'm not interested in picking up where we left off."

Oh, come on! "No? With the big sad eyes and the robot dog? What else were you doing last night? Because I thought my dad had only been in love twice. Once with my mum and the other..." I trailed off, trying not to look at Rose. "To find out that there could have been countless others..."

She shook her head. "I was just saying how hard it was adjusting to life back on Earth."

"The thing is, when you two met they'd only just got rid of rationing." Rose said, sounding a little peeved herself. "No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for you."

And now we were having a bitch off. "I had no problem with space stuff. I saw things you wouldn't believe."

"Try me."

"Mummies."

"I've met ghosts."

"Robots. Lots of robots."

"Slitheen, in Downing Street."

"Daleks!"

I interjected. "I killed the Emperor with sound."

"Anti-matter monsters."

"Gas masked zombies."

"Real living dinosaurs."

"Real living werewolf."

"The Loch Ness Monster!"

Wait, what? "Seriously?" I asked her, losing complete interest in the argument.

Now Rose was laughing a little. "Listen to us. It's like me and my mate Shireen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and we're arguing over the Doctor, and Jace is defending her dad. With you, did he do that thing where he'd explain something at like, ninety miles per hour, and you'd go, what? and he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt?"

"All the time." Sarah Jane laughed, then shot one back. "Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?"

Oh, yes! Yes! "Yeah! Yeah, he does. I'm like, do you two want to be alone? I wouldn't be surprised if the TARDIS was my real mum!"

We couldn't help but start laughing manically, and then dad came in. "How's it going?" We were too busy laughing at him. "What? Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these." Nope, too far gone, I couldn't breathe, I was laughing so much. "What? Stop it!" He sounded like a little puppy!

The bell went early for lesson, and that snapped us out of it, as Rose went to stop them all coming in the room, dad and I just trying to get through the seals, but even with both my ability and the sonic, we couldn't, wires looped over the both of us in tangles. "Wecan't shift it."

"I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything!" Sarah Jane cried, but I sighed, shaking my head.

"Anything except a deadlock seal." I told her, getting frustrated and making a window shatter with a short, sharp burst of high frequency. "There's got to be something inside here. What're they teaching those kids?"

And then the screens burst into life, making us all look at them. "You wanted the programme? There it is."

"Some sort of code." It started to revolve itself, and dad stared, looking like he recognised it. Wel, he was the smartest person alive, he would have. "No. No, that can't be.The Skasis Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm."

"The Skasis what?"

He pulled me close, for his own piece of mind and started speaking. "The God maker. The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control."

"What, and the kids are like a giant computer?"

Wait, I got it, that made sense! "Yes. And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil. That oil from the kitchens, it works as a, as a conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer. As clever as me."

"But that oil's on the chips." Rose realised. "I've been eating them."

"What's fifty nine times thirty five?"

She answered without hesitation. "Two thousand and sixty five. Oh, my God."

"But why use children? Can't they use adults?" Sarah Jane asked, looking cautiously at me. I hadn't eaten the chips, they weren't veggie.

"No, it's got to be children." Dad told her, and then kept stroking my hair that seemed to be keeping hold of the colours, getting even brighter. "The God maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code, they're using their souls."

"Let the lesson begin." We all turned to see Finch in the doorway, smiling at the pair of us. "Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it."

And that was a good thing? "Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mister Finch? Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are."

"You act like such a radical, especially your father, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."

"What, by someone like you?"

"No, someone like you and your precious daughter, the Girl of Colours. The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom, and a sense of family. Become a God and Godess at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Assinta. Your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn, your mother back with you, with your father. A real family."

Sarah Jane tried to step forward as I thought of mum and Katie, how they didn't deserve to die, how no one had deserved to die. "Doctor, Jace, don't listen to him."

He turned it to hem. "And you could be with them throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die. Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor, and how lonely you will be, Jace. Join us."

"I could save everyone." Dad whispered, his grip tightening on my shoulders, like he was scared to let go incase I ceased to exist. "Icould stop the war, bring back Lucie for Jace, so she had a mum..."

Sarah Jane still wouldn't let us. "No. The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends."

God... She was right. It wasn't right, if they hadn't died, I wouldn't have found dad, my real, amazing dad. So I sent a shockwave of low sound at screen, and it smashed it a haze of red. "Out!"

We all got to the running part of the adventure, and Finch called his brethren as Mickey got into the school, a boy with him. Kenny, one of the other veggies. "What is going on?"

But the Krillitanes were coming at the same time and I took Kennys hand, dragging him along to the canteen, closely followed by Finch and some bats. "Are they our teachers?"

"Yeah. Sorry. Oh, and they're not my teachers, they're yours."

"We need the Doctor and Jace alive. As for the others? You can feast." Finch said, and we all ducked under the tables.Krillitanes swoop. They hide under the tables. Suddenly a laser beam fells one of the bats. Finch is furious.)

"Suggest you engage running mode, mistresses." K9 told us, and dad dragged us into the nearest classroom while K9 shot lazers.

"It's the oil." I told them, starting to pace in the class, running my hands through my hair. "Krillitane life forms can't handle the oil. That's it! They've changed their physiology so often, even their own oil is toxic to them. How much was there in the kitchens?"

Rose looked eager to help. "Barrels of it."

"Okay, we need to get to the kitchens. Mickey."

He didn't look all that happy. "What now, hold the coats?"

Actually, his job was bloody important. "Get all the children unplugged and out of the school. Now then, bats, bats, bats. How do we fight bats?!" Then I remembered, seeing off all the fire alarms quickly, keeping it going even as we ran through, the sound hurting even us as we ran, aiming for the kitchen.

"Master."

"Come on, boy. Good boy" Dad cooed at the metal dog, before we made it to the kitchen, Mickey going the other way to get the kids out. Though we had a major problem. We couldn't open the barrels of oil. "They've been deadlock sealed. Finch must've done that. I can't open them."

I tried sending a shockwave at it, and felt it respond. It was flammable. "Dad, I can-"

"Jace, no, not a chance."

"The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser." K9 then told us, and Dad looked at him. "But my batteries are failing."

He considered it, and then nodded. "Right. Everyone out the back door. K9, Jace, stay with me."

"Capacity for only one shot, Master, Mistress Jace. For maximum impact, I must be stationed directly beside the vat, after Jace has increased the flammability."

Wait, what? No! "But you'll be trapped inside, and I don't have the restraint to do anything but set it off-"

Dad kissed my temple, holding me close. "My Jace, you are amazing. Believe in yourself, because not only are you Bad Wolf, but you're the Girl of Colours. Listen to the world and what it tells you to do."

I took a deep breath and opened my colours out, flinching at the high pitched sonar of the Krillitanes surrounding us, before listening to the oil, using sound to heat it up just to the point of boiling, when I stopped, my head pounding. I'd done too much,

"Goodbye, old friend. You good dog." Dad smiled at the dog, picking me up before starting to run, finding Sarah Jane waiting outside the doors.

"Where's K9?"

He didn't tell her, just kept carrying me. "We need to run."

"Where is he?" She demanded, running anyway. "What have you done!"

And the school went up as we reached the front of the school, paper raining down over all the kids, and they loved it. Kenny got the glory, though he looked over to where I was now stood with dad, leaning against him and I put my finger to my lips. I was never here.

"I'm sorry." Dad told Sarah Jane, who was staring silently away from us, her eyes starting to fill with tears.

She shook her head a little. "It's all right. He was just a daft metal dog. It's fine, really." And then the tears came, and we tried to comfort her, but we'd just let her oldest friend Martyr himself.

DW

"Cup of tea?" I asked her later, with the TARDIS salvaged from the burning school, and we were now not far from Sarah Janes house.

She came inside, and then looked at everything in amazement, before shrugging a little. "You've redecorated."

Dad grinned, eager to have it up to her standard. "Do you like it?"

"Oh, I, I do. Yeah. I preferred it as it was, but er, yeah. It'll do."

"I love it." Rose smiled, and I could still see a little hostility in there, because she was here first. I was just glad that he had loved mum, and she'd not been a one night stand or something.

"Hey, you what's forty seven times three hundred and sixty nine?"

"No idea. It's gone now. The oil's faded."

Oh, but I was still good at maths. "17343"

That made her laugh. "Oh, you are definitely your fathers daughter. Clever. More than a match for him."

I nodded, really liking her now. "You and me both. Dad?"

He blinked like a deer in the headlights for a moment, before remembering "Er, we're about to head off, but you could come with us."

"No." Oh... we thought she wanted to come again... "I can't do this anymore. Besides, I've got a much bigger adventure ahead. Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own."

And Mickey dropped a bombshell. "Can I come?" Sarah looked a bit confused. "No, not with you, I mean with you. Because I'm not the tin dog, and I want to see what's out there."

"Yes. Jacey says yes, we're having Mickey, and what Jacey says goes." I smiled, and he gave me a warm smile.

And now Sarah Jane was backing him up. "Oh, go on, Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith, Jace Smith, a Mickey Smith. You need another Smith on board."

"Okay then," he nodded after a moment. "I could do with a laugh. And Jace needs a target for shockwaves." Not happening.

Mickey looked at his sort of ex girlfriend, though they never really broke up. "Rose, is that okay?"

"No, great." Blatantly lying. "Why not?"

"Well, I'd better go."

But Rose and I reached for the older woman at the same time. "What do we do? Do I stay with him? Should Jace?"

She gave the answer we thought she'd give. "Yes. Some things are worth getting your heart broken for. Find me, if you need to, one day. Find me. And Jace, oh, come on, Jacey, he's your dad. Family is everything."

Her arm was wrapped around my shoulder as we walked back outside the TARDIS, dad smiled at the pair of us. "It's daft, but I haven't ever thanked you for that time. And like I said, I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

"Something to tell the grandkids."

"Oh, I think it'll be someone else's grandkids now."

He made a face. "Right. Yes, sorry. I didn't get a chance to ask. You haven't? There hasn't been anyone? You know."

Sarah Jane gave him a small smile. "Well, there was this one guy. I travelled with him for a while, but he was a tough act to follow, and the way he is with his daughter... No one could love a child more. Goodbye, Doctor, Jacey."

"Oh, it's not goodbye."

"Do say it." She asked, her eyes filling with tears again. "Please. This time. Say it."

He hugged her tight, lifting her up off the ground. "Goodbye, my Sarah Jane." And then we went back into the TARDIS, letting her have her last gift. K9, with the same memories. Because dad may not mention the others, but he never forgot them. And neither would I.


	17. 30 Years

The Doctor:

Space ships, not a bad shout for Mickey's first trip, and Jace was the one to choose it. She was getting really good at TARDIS flying, nearly as good as me, not that I'd ever tell her that. "It's a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go."

"It looks kind of abandoned." Jacey muttered, looking at all the abandoned machinery, befoer turning on a radio with her hands. Of course. "Anyone on board?"

I shook my head, kissing her head. "Nah, nothing here. Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous." Better safe than sorry. "You know what, I'll just have a quick scan, in case there's anything dangerous."

Rose looked over, tucking her short blonde hair behind her ear. "So, what's the date? How far we gone?"

"About three thousand years into your future," Jace said, looking out of a small porthole. "Give or take."

I found a light switch on the console and part of the ceiling showed the stars, meaning that I knew exactly where we were, though Jace was better at telling the year. Apparently space resonated time similar to the TARDIS. "Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies."

"Mickey Smith, meet the universe." Jace grinned, and he rested his arm on her shoulder like a proper big brother. He was good for some things. "See anything you like?"

He was just staring into the dark abyss of the unknown. "It's so realistic!"

"Dear me, had some cowboys in here." I muttered, looking through a monitor and seeing everything was half done. "Got a ton of repair work going on. Now that's odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving. So where's all that power going?"

"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose asked after a moment, while Jace took over on the computer. My little hacker.

"Good question. No life readings on board."

"Well, we're in deep space." She muttered, her eyes reflecting everything. She looked so much older, and she was nearly 16. I wish that I could have found her as a baby, maybe then I'd have changed her life. "They didn't just nip out for a quick fag."

Disgusting habit. "No, I've checked all the smoking pods. Can you smell that?"

Rose nodded, sniffing. "Yeah, someone's cooking."

"Sunday roast, definitely."

A door opened behind us and Jace held her hands up. "I didn't mean to!"

We laughed and pulled her along with us, all laughing a little until we saw a large, ornate fireplace. "Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship. Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there."

Rose, the taller girl, looked through the porthole in the same wall. "There can't be. That's the outer hull of the ship. Look."

"Hello." I smiled at the young girl who was now kneeling by the other side of the fireplace, looking to be just a bit younger than Jace, no more than 10.

"Hello."

Jace smiled more, and I saw that they looked pretty similar. The same eyes and Jace's hair was just a little darker and a lot more frizzy. "What's your name?"

"Reinette."

Definitely French. "Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?"

"In my bedroom."

"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?"

She looked at us like we were insane. "Paris, of course."

Jace nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Paris, right!"

"Monsieur, Mademoiselle, what are you doing in my fireplace?"

Ah, now that was interesting. "Oh, it's just a routine fire check. Can you tell me what year it is?"

She smiled brightly. "Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven."

"Right, lovely." Just a bit. "One of my favourites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night."

"Goodnight Monsieur, Mademoiselle."

We got back up and she went off to bed. "You said this was the fifty first century."

"He also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."

Everyone stared at her, including me. "What's that?"

"No idea." Jace giggled. "Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door."

"And on the other side of the magic door is France in 1727?"

I nodded, running my hands through my hair, making it stand on end even more. "Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too."

Mickey frowned a little. "She was speaking English, I heard her."

"That's the TARDIS. Translates for you."

"Even French?"

"Yeah." Mickey looked impressed.

Jace had been messing with the fireplace, and had found something. "Gotcha!"

"Jace!" I managed to grab a hold of it as it rotated, and we went around into Reinette's bedroom, where she awoke with a start. "It's okay. Don't scream. It's me. It's the fireplace man. Look. We were talking just a moment ago. We were in your fireplace."

My little girl lit a candle with a wave of her hand, while the girl looked at us in confusion. "Mademoiselle, that was weeks ago. That was months."

"Really?" I frowned a little, while Jace was looking at the clock. "Oh. Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in."

Reinette was still confused at who and why. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

And then I got hold of why Jace was confused, the clock was broken, yet there was still a heavy, booming ticking noise that she'd once told me resonated in a light grey, that edged nearly black. "Okay, that's scary."

"You're scared of a broken clock?"

"Just a bit scared, yeah." She nodded, and her hair swishing softly across the top of her light green shirt. "Just a little tiny bit. Because, you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room, then what's that?" I left it to her as sound her her domain. She could see it, hear it, sense it. Control it. "Because, you see, that's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance, how it echoes. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. The size of a man."

And now Reinette was scared. "What is it?"

Which was where we got to my point, where we reached alien recognition. "Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two? You might start to wonder if you're really alone. Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge, Jace, sit on the windowsill." She just went over to the other side of bed. "Or not."

We waved things either side of the bed, and then Jace was thrown back into the wall. "Reinette don't look round." I whispered, looking to her, seeing she was unconscious. Oh, he was not going to survive that. "You, stay exactly where you are. Hold still, let me look." I held her head lightly, looking into her eyes, through her eyes. "You've been scanning her brain. What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain? What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"

"I don't understand." The little girl asked. "It wants me? You want me?"

"Not yet. You are incomplete." The droid told her, his voice cold and calculating.

But I had not a clue what that meant. "Incomplete? What's that mean, incomplete? You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, incomplete?"

The android walked around the bed, ignoring Jace as a blade came out of its hand. "Monsieur, be careful."

"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares." It slashed at me and I dodged it easily. "Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?"

The blade got stuck in the mantlepiece. "What do monsters have nightmares about?"

"Me!" And then I turned it around, getting it away from Reinette and Jace as Rose saw me coming back, letting me grab a fire extinguisher and used it to freeze the android, seizing the joints.

"Excellent. Ice gun." Mickey laughed as I threw it to him.

I shook my head. "Fire extinguisher."

"Where did that thing come from?"

That was a question? Super high tech place, or the French Renaissance. "Here."

"So why is it dressed like that?"

"Field trip to France." Obviously. "Some kind of basic camouflage protocol. Nice needlework, shame about the face." I took off the face to reveal the clockwork. "Oh, you are beautiful! No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that. Space age clockwork, I love it. I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you. But that won't stop me." Until it beamed away. "Short range teleport. Can't have got far. Could still be on board."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

I didn't have time, time moved faster on the other side of the wall, and I didn't want to lose anymore time with her growing up. "Don't go looking for it!"

"Where're you going?"

"Back in a sec." I turned around and looked for my daughter, no longer lying against the wall like I left her, but the room was aalso a lot bigger, a big, plus, split level room. "Reinette? Just checking you're okay. And getting Jace, my daughter."

I then plucked a string on a large, ornate harp before someone cleared their throat. "Ahem." She was tall, beautiful, with ashen blonde hair that was curled in loose waves, pinned back from the front. Her eyes were a dark, stormy blue.

"Oh. Hello. Er, I was just looking for Jace and Reinette. This is still her room, isn't it? I've been away, not sure how long."

"Jaclyn, Reinette! We're ready to go."

"Go to the carriage, Madam Poisson." The girl called, and my eyes widened as another joined her, with honey gold hair and brighter, brown eyes. "We will join you there. Doctor, it's been a long time."

"Jace, Reinette! Well. Goodness, how you've both grown." I stared at my daughter, probably about 25 now, though Time Lords aged 3 times as slower once we reached the age of 21, and god, she was amazing... "God, Jace..."

Reinette raised a single eyebrow. "And you do not appear to have aged a single day. That is tremendously impolite of you. Jace became my maid, more like a friend for me, until she became part of the family. Mother liked her more than me when she started to play music."

"Right, yes, sorry. Listen, lovely to catch up, but better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with a strange man, do we? Jace, come on." I went to take her hand but she just stood there. "Jace?"

"Strange? How could you be a stranger to me? I've known you since I was seven years old, when you brought my best friend to me."

Jace was not looking happy, her eyes mostly dead and ill as I tried to catch them. "Yeah, I suppose you have. I came the quick route." My daughter didn't look happy. "Jace? I didn't... I didn't mean to do this. I left you for just a moment, it was 2 minutes for me..."

She shook her head. "And it was 10 years for me. I woke up with no memories. It took months for me to be able to even remember my name, by which point they had already called me Jacqueline. I just... I'm Jace. And for months, I couldn't be that."

"I didn't know, I, I thought it would be an hour, maybe a day or so, but Jace..." I reached out to touch her but she backed away again. "Jacey. My Jace..."

My daughter reached forward to push me a little. "You seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real, because no one ever comes back for me. I'm a fully integrated French Lady, I perform nightly and I have the freedom to choose whether or not I marry." Which I knew she never would.

"Oh, you never want to listen to reason, because I will always be here, the fact that time went so quickly... I'm sorry, Jacey, please..."

"Mademoiselles!" Another voice shouted. "Your mother grows impatient."

"A moment!" Reinette shouted back, and I saw Jace smooth down her skirts, getting ready to go. No, no way, she was coming back with me. "So many questions. So little time."

Until Reinette kissed me, pushing me up against the wall and I joined in on instinct. Until they both ran out on me when the servant came in. "Mademoiselle Poisson et Smith!"

Hang on a moment. "Poisson? Reinette Poisson?" Oh you were kidding me. "No! No, no, no, no, no way. Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan, fantastic gardener! Best friend of the most famous French singer, Lady Belle Voix, who has to be Jace!"

"Who the hell are you?!"

"I'm the Doctor, and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour, and I'm Lady Belle Voix's father. Ha, ha!" I laughed to myself, turning around the fireplace, wanting to tell the other two. "Rose! Mickey!" Nope, they'd wandered off. "Every time. Every time, it's rule one. Don't wander off. I tell them, I do. Rule one. There could be anything on this ship." Including a horse. As you do.

"Rose?" I called, and then heard the horse still behind me. "Will you stop following me? I'm not your mother." I opened a new pair of new, gleaming white doors, showing a bright white light. "So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?"

It was the Verailles gardens, and again I could see Reinette and Jace, walking arm in arm with parasols. She seemed happy here, at peace, but I could also see she was restless, used to the constant adrenaline of first being on the streets and then with me, her arms tensed at all times, and a small tattoo like mark across her arms where she was getting withdrawal from time, the thing that made us great.

"Oh, Jace, you are too wicked." Reinette laughed, pushing her lightly.

She smiled back, looking around with her eyes brighter, looking at all the colours, so I made sure to not make a noise. "Oh, speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateauroux is ill and close to death."

"Yes. I am devastated."

"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable." Yeah, right. "The King will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the King, of course?"

Her friend nodded. "He is the King, and I love him with all my heart. And I look forward to meeting him." I hid again quickly as they came close, but Jace caught sight of something. "Is something wrong, my dear?"

"Not wrong, no." I felt her stare, and knew she probably didn't want to come home, though I needed her too. Time Withdrawal... It could be deadly, even though she was only little over half Time Lord. But she ignored me too, and kept walking. "Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions."

Reinette smiled slyly. "Every woman in Paris shares them."

"You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree ball? I shall prepare a special song to perform when you first meet him, one that he will have to dance with you for." So some sound manipulation was going on there.

I left them too it, knowing that Jace wouldn't come quietly, pardon the pun, and went back to looking for the other two, knowing that she could look after herself. Besides, she must have been about 30 by now. Rose and Mickey had found another time window, and were staring at Reinette's future partner. "Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?"

"The King of France."

"Oh, here's trouble." Rose laughed. "What you been up to? Where's Jace?"

Not explaining that yet. "Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, found out I'm the father of France's most famous singers, Lady Belle Voix, picked a fight with a clockwork man." Arthur neighed. "Oh, and I met a horse."

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?"

Enough with stupid questions, Ricky. "Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective. See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history." Reinette and Jace entered the room, curtseying to the King, Jace in a very ornate, TARDIS blue dress. "Theirs. Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of two particular women. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth, as well as a woman who shouldn't be there. Why?"

"Who is she?" Rose asked, then realised who the other was. "Is that Jace?! She looks older than me!"

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette, as well as Lady Belle Voix Smith, her best friend. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived, refused to marry, and took the Capital by storm with a voice that could literally bring down a roof if at the right note."

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then? I mean the other one, Jace doesn't like boys. Or girls." Very true.

I shook my head. "No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress. And Jace, well, Belle Voix goes where she does, becomes the Court singer."

"Oh, I get it. Camilla." Oh, someone read the gossip mags.

"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, and Belle Voix as the greatest singer ever known, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour, and The Lady Belle Voix."

The King and his servants left. leaving Jace and Reinette to check their appearances in the mirror/window, which Jace hated, because make up made her eyes itch. "The Queen must have loved her."

"Oh, she did. They get on very well."

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?"

Was that so strange? "France. It's a different planet."

And then Jace turned to see a woman in the corner, and narrowed her eyes. "How long have you been standing there? Show yourself!"

It was an android, and I acted quickly, grabbing the extinguisher from Mickey and heading through the mirror. "Hello, Reinette, my Jacey Jacey Jay. Hasn't time flown?"

"Fireplace man!"

I sprayed the android quickly, and threw the sprayer back to Mickey as it started to creak. "What's it doing?"

"Switching back on." Jace said, looking around it quickly. "Melting the ice, and I can't stop it, only slow it down."

"And then what?"

"Then it kills everyone in the room." She told him, her voice deadly serious. "Focuses the mind, doesn't it? Long time no see, Mickey."

Oh, god, about 15 years for her, but an hour for us. She could have forgotten us all, but she remembered. "Who are you? Identify yourself." It didn't say anything, so I looked at my daughter and Reinette. "Order it to answer me."

"Why should it listen to me? Or Jace?"

"I don't know. It did when you were a child, and it's following Jace as much as you, I've checked. Let's see if you've still got it."

Reinette hesitated before speaking. "Answer his question."

Jace did it without pause. "Answer any and all questions put to you."

"I am repair droid seven."

"What happened to the ship, then?" I asked it, and went to take my daughters hand, but she didn't let me. But she didn't move far away like the last time. "There was a lot of damage."

The Droid was more than happy to reply this time. "Ion storm. Eighty two percent systems failure."

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?"

"We did not have the parts."

Mickey laughed a little. "Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts."

"What's happened to the crew?" Jace asked. "Where were they? They weren't there last time." Last time, it was the same time, you just decided to take the long way back.

"We did not have the parts."

That wasn't the right answer. "There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?"

"We did not have the parts."

Tell me! "Fifty people don't just disappear. Where-."

But Jace got it first. "Oh. You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew."

"The crew?" Mickey looked disgusted.

"We found a camera with an eye in it, and there was a heart wired in to machinery."

I shook my head. "It was just doing what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"

"Someone cooking."

"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque." Jace muttered, and I knew this sort of thing was why she was a vegetarian. "But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows, letting me get stuck through one, and every time I tried to get out, I couldn't. That takes colossal energy, especially to trap someone who controls sound. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"

"Two more parts are required."

"Then why haven't you taken them?"

"They are incomplete." What?

"What, so, that's the plan, then. Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning their brains, checking to see if they're done yet."

Rose frowned a little. "Why them? You've got all of history to choose from. Why specifically them? Jace isn't even from this time?"

"We are the same."

Jace's eyes hardened, and her hands were coated in a light purple. She was too powerful, it wasn't safe to use the ability in this time, and it was building up. "We are not the same. We are in no sense the same. I am Lady Belle Voix, and I am from this time!" No... You weren't.

"We are the same."

"Get out of here. Get out of here this instant!"

"Jaclyn, no." I cried as the droid teleported away, and the mirrors around us shattered. "It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur. Get after it. Follow it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does."

Jace, looking a lot paler, and the thin black marks up her arms, known as just a birthmark in history, resembled thorns that were well and truly wrapped around her. 15 years outside the TARDIS, it was taking its toll. "Arthur?"

"Good name for a horse."

Now Rose rolled her eyes. "No, you're not keeping the horse."

"I let you keep Mickey. Now go! Go! Go!" They left and I closed the mirror door behind them, looking at my daughter and her friend. "Jace, Reinette, you're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for. There's only one way I can do that. It won't hurt a bit."

I reached out and touched each of their foreheads, looking at them both at once. "Fireplace man, you are inside my mind."

"Oh dear, Reinette, and my Jacey. You've had some cowboys in here."

"You are in my memories. You walk among them."

"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and close it, especially you, Jace, with what you've been through. I won't look. Oh, actually there's a door just there. You might want to cl. Oh, actually, several."

My daughter tried to pull away, but I held tight. "To walk among the memories of another living soul. Do you ever get used to this? Because... I'm normal here..."

Oh, she was never meant to be normal, she said so herself. "I don't make a habit of it."

"How can you resist?"

"What age are you? You too Jace, I'm not sure."

"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation. How promising."

"No, not my question, theirs. You're twenty three, and Jace, you're 31 and for some reason, that means you're not old enough. Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect, and Jace, I am very sorry..."

My daughters head shook a little, her long ashen hair brushing my fingers. "Oh, such a lonely childhood."

My poor baby girl... "It'll pass. Stay with me."

"Oh, Dad. So lonely. So very, very alone."

Wait what? "What do you mean, alone? You've not been alone in about 18 years, Jaclyn. When did you start calling me Dad again, its been Doctor the last few times we've met?"

"Such a lonely little boy." She whispered, her eyes suddenly opening again, the brighter, more sparkly blue back and the thorns retreated a little bit as contact with me healed her slightly. "Lonely then and lonelier now. How can you bear it?"

I took my fingers back, stepping away. "How did you do that? Jace, I never showed you that."

Her eyebrow raised a little. "A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction. Oh, Father. Mon père solitaire. Dance with me."

"I can't."

"Dance with me."

"This is the night you sing for the King. where you become the most famous singer in history."

"Then first, I shall get my fathers blessing on my career choice."

She definitely had her mothers determination. "I can't."

Her lips curled into the most beautiful smile and I could help but smile back, just a little. "Doctor. Doctor who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it? Even for me, though in your head, you're supposed to tell your child on their 21st birthday. I'm 31."

"What did you see? Jace?"

"That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance, if only to teach his daughter."

I didn't stand a chance.

DW

"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night and still have begged for more. I could've spread my wings and done a thou." Jace, adult French, Jaclyn, my little Calliope, was amazing, she knew how to get a party going. "Have you met the French, my newly French daughter? My god, they know how to party."

Rose and Mickey were strapped to a table, and I was there with a glass of wine and my tie round my head. I was going to regret this in the morning, but it was Jace's fault. "Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm. Where's Jace, she not French!" Debatable with her way to party.

"Oh, you sound just like your mother."

That wasn't really helping. "What've you been doing? Where've you been?"

Now where to start. "Well, among other things, I think just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early, as well as Jace making the best ever rock music in the 18th century. Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before. Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good." Then I grinned at the head droidy droid man thing. "Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant. It's you. You're my favourite, you are. You are the best! Do you know why? Because you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so's your dad. Do you know what they were scanning Reinette and Jace's brains for? Their milometers. They want to know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty seven years old, and they think that when Reinette is thirty seven, and Jace however old she is when they need the brain, when she's complete, then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it, hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain and a voice. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour and Lady Belle Voix Smith will do."

"The brain and voice are compatible."

"Compatible?" You were kidding me, her voice was the most Time Lord part of her! "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." I took off his mask and poured my goblet into the head, and the clock work seized. "Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." And then turned the rest of them off through the console and freed the other two. "Right, you two, that's enough lying about. Time we got the rest of the ship turned off."

Mickey looked at the other robots. "Are those things safe?"

I nodded, sorting out my tie. "Yeah. Safe. Safe and thick, way I like them. Okay. All the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down. Zeus plugs." I patted down my pockets. "Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago. I was using them as castanets for Livin La Vida Loca." Don't ask why Jace wanted to do that song, in fluent French.

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty seven? And Jace said they trapped her there."

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century. Trial and error after that. And they knew her genetic coding, so they could stop her activating it on one side. "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"

A bell rang around us, and we all looked up. "What's that?"

How should I know? "I don't know. Incoming message?"

"From who?"

"Report from the field. One of them must still be out there with Reinette and Jace. That's why I can't close the windows. There's an override." But then the first droid, Mr Thick, expelled the anti-oil through his finger, right onto my cream converse. "Well, that was a bit clever." And he turned his friends back on. "Right. Many things about this are not good. Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?"

And the reply send a shiver of panic through my hearts. "They are complete. It begins."

"What's happening?" Rose asked me as they all teleported out.

No, no, no, no, no... "One of them must have found the right time window. Now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head and Jace's voice, that's her life."

I sent Rose to talk to the pair of them, as my daughter refused to come back yet, as she was still a crucial part of history, up until her disappearance the year of Reinettes death. I knew that would happen, it always happened as she was only mortal.

"You found it, then?" She asked as she ran up to us.

I nodded, looking down as the scene unfolded. "They knew I was coming. They blocked it off."

"I don't get it. How come they got in there?"

"They teleported." I replied, looking at my daughter, the thorns back on her arms, thick and twisted, leaving her weak, her voice not letting her defend herself. "You saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short range teleports will do the trick."

"Well, we'll go in the TARDIS!"

Did no one ever listen to me?! "We can't use the TARDIS. We're part of events now."

Mickey frowned a little, staring at the little sister who was now older than him. "Well, can't we just smash through?"

I would have already done that. "Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck."

"We don't have a truck."

"I know we don't have a truck!"

"Well, we've got to try something."

Think, think, think, think... "No. Smash the glass, smash the time window. There'd be no way back."

"Could everyone just calm down? Please." Jace shouted, trying to get everyones attention, and her voice was still strong enough to control the masses of panicking people around her. "Such a commotion. Such distressing noise. Kindly remember that this is Versailles. This is the Royal Court, and we are French. I have made a decision. And my decision is no, I shall not be going with you today. I have seen your world, I was part of it for a while, and I have no desire to set foot there again."

There was a pause from the droids "We do not require your feet." They pushed her and Reinette to their knees, and she was too weak to fight. I needed to get her back into the TARDIS and fast.

"You think I fear you, but I do not fear you even now." She said darkly, her eyes going brighter as she struggled for control. "You are merely the nightmare of my childhood. The monster from under my bed. And if my nightmare can return to plague me, then rest assured, so will yours."

At that point, I leapt up onto Arthur, and used him to gallop through the mirror, wanting my daughter safe as they moved the blade closer to where her voice lay. "Lady Belle Voix, Madame de Pompadour. You look younger every day, though Belle, you should really remember to call your dear old dad."

"What the hell is going on?" King Lois demanded, getting to his feet also.

"Oh." Reinitiate muttered. "This is my lover, the King of France."

I wasn't impressed. "Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time, father of Lady Belle Voix Smith, and I'm here to fix the clock." I took the mask off the main droid, and it pointed the blade at my throat. "Forget it. It's over. For you and for me. Talk about seven years bad luck. Try three thousand." There was a brick wall where the portal lay, and I had no way to help her, without giving her my immunity. But that was fine. My Legacy.

"The link with the ship is broken. No way back. You don't have the parts. How many ticks left in that clockwork heart, huh? A day? An hour? It's over. Accept that. I'm not winding you up."

They all wound down, one even falling apart and shattering before I took my daughters hands, helping her to her feet. "You all right?"

She replied by hugging me, and I squeezed her tight, no longer able to pick her up with how light she was. "What's happened to them?" Reinette asked, getting to her feet with the aid of her lover.

"They've stopped." My little girl whispered. "They have no purpose now."

DW

Later on, I left the party for a while, looking up at the night sky as Jace was with Reinette now, and I listed their names in my head. Until they came up behind me. "You know all their names, don't you? I saw that in your mind. The name of every star, dad."

"What's in a name?" I asked her softly, hugging her tight and kissing her even fluffier, corkscrew curled hair. "Names are just titles. Titles don't tell you anything."

"Like the Doctor. And The Seer."

Sort of. "Like Madame de Pompadour and Lady Belle Voix."

Reinette smiled too, and looked up at the sky with us. "I have often wished to see those stars a little closer. Just as you have, I think."

"From time to time."

"In saving me, you trapped yourself, dad." my little girl muttered, and I felt her two hearts thrumming in her chest, needing that connection to time that the TARDIS could give her. "Did you know that would happen?"

"Mmm." I sighed. "Pretty much."

Reinitiate raised an eyebrow. "Yet, still you came."

I smiled at the pair of them, loving that my daughter knew I didn't abandon her, that I made sure she was safe, and knew she did amazingly. "Yeah, I did, didn't I? Catch me doing that again."

"There were many doors between my world and yours." Reinette told us softly. "Can you not use one of the others?"

Even Jace shook her head. "When the mirror broke, the shock would have severed all the links with the ship, I felt it, saw the jade shatter. There'll be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I'm afraid, wherever there was a time window."

Oh, that reminded me. "I'll, I'll pay for any damage. Er, that's a thought, I'm going to need money. I was always a bit vague about money. Where do you get money?"

She smiled a little. "So, here you are, my lonely angel, and my angels gift, stuck on the slow path with me."

"Yep, the slow path. Here's to the slow path." We all toasted, all drinking the same, thick, clove filled wine.

Until she sighed. "It's a pity. I think I would've enjoyed the slow path."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, not without Jace, anyway."

"Oh, aren't you? Take my hand." I did so, and Jace held mine as we went into her bedroom, and saw the most amazing sight ever. "It's not a copy, it's the original. I had it moved here and was exact in every detail, while Jace was on tour around the city."

Both of our eyes widened as Jace stumbled a little, the thorns peeking up from the top of her dress up her neck. She didn't have a choice any longer, I was taking her with me if I could get out. "The fireplace. The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?"

"Many years ago, in the hope that a door once opened, may someday open again. One never quite knows when one needs one's Doctor, or a girl will need her father. It appears undamaged. Do you think it will still work?"

"You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it, which means it was offline when the mirror broke." I told her, holding Jace up. "That's what saved it. But the link is basically physical, and it's still physically here. Which might just mean, if I'm lucky. If I'm very, very, very, very, very, very lucky." Tap tap. "Ah ha!"

"What?"

"Loose connection." Jace smiled weakly, touching the wall lightly with her index finger, a slight whistle coming through. "Need to get a woman in." Then she hit it. "Wish me luck!"

But she just shook her head. "No."

The fireplace turned and took us away, but we crouched the other side of fireplace. "Madame de Pompadour!" My little girl called, that small amount of time travel giving her more strength. "Still want to see those stars?"

"More than anything, my sister."

"Give me two minutes." I grinned, patting my adult daughters shoulder. "Pack a bag."

Reinette frowned a little. "Am I going somewhere?"

Oh, you were going everywhere. "Go to the window. Pick a star, any star."

And then we ran back to where the other two were stuck waiting, they leapt up to hug us, me and Rose, and Mickey with Jace, who was now taller than him. "How long did you wait?"

"Five and a half hours."

Ouch... "Great. Always wait five and a half hours."

"Where've you been?"

"Explain later." I told her, running the TARDIS and grabbing a syringe quickly and running back out to Jace. "Into the Tardis. Be with you in a sec."

They did as I said for once, and then I jabbed a the needle into Jace's arm, making her yelp before she relaxed, the thorns of Time Poisoning retreating to nothing. That was much better. Then we went through the fireplace again, and saw the room dark and cold. "Reinette? You there, Reinette?" Jace went on ahead, knowing her way around the palace. "Reinette? Oh, hello, your Majesty."

"You just missed her." He said sadly as Jace curtseyed. "She'll be in Paris by six."

Oh God... "Ah."

"Good Lord." The King gasped. "She was right. She said you never looked a day older, and you. Lady Belle. So many years since I saw you last, but not a day of it on your face, and you were 9 years her elder." He took a sealed letter from the drawer. "She spoke of you many times, we all did. of your amazing voice. Often wished you'd visit again. You know how women are." He gave her the envelope before looking back out the window, where a hearse was driving away in the pouring rain. "There she goes. Leaving Versailles for the last time. Only forty three when she died. Too young. Too young. Illness took her in the end. She always did work too hard. What does she say?"

Jace, tears in her eyes, tucked it inside a small bag at her hip. "Of course. Quite right. Sisters are as close as can be. Final words should be private between them."

I took her hand and lead her back through the fireplace, and back into the TARDIS where Rose and Mickey were still waiting. "Why them?" Rose asked us. "Why did they think they could repair the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour and Lady Belle Voix?"

"We'll probably never know." I whispered, seeing the pain and the hurt in my daughters eyes as she went through the console with ease, even after 30 years away. "There was massive damage in the computer memory banks. It probably got confused. The TARDIS can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble."

Rose put her arm around her old friend for a moment, but she pulled away. "Are you all right? God, you... You're older than me now." That wasn't exactly helping.

"I'm always all right." She said stiffly.

Mickey understood, and pulled his ex back. "Come on, Rose. It's time you showed me around the rest of this place."

They left, and Jace took the letter back out, and unsealed it, reading aloud. "My dear sister Jace, and your father, Doctor. The path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again, but I think I shall not listen to reason. I have seen the world inside your head, and in my sisters past, and know that all things are possible. Especially that a voice can be a deciding vote. Hurry though, my sister and friend. My days grow shorter now, and I am so very weak. God speed, my lonely angels."

She took a deep breath, then opened a panel under the console, where she'd seen me put things I cared for most, including Jacks key, and Lynda's records from the Game Station, and placed the letter there with it. It was her first loss, and unfortunately, it would never be her last. The SS Lady Belle Voix and Madame De Pompadour.


	18. Not An Idiot

Jace:

Dear Diary

Dad said it would be anidea to start writing things down, because we didn't know how much the human side of my memory would everremember. Possible infinite life span, but finite memory. The hardest part is remembering to speak English, as he says I keep speaking French. 31 years of it, and it stuck.

Reinette... She was my best friend, even closer to me than Rose, or Mickey. And now... Now she was gone, but at the same time she was gone long before I ever was conceived. Me ever meeting her was an accident, and I gave her a friend as much as I had her. Lady Belle Voix... She was gone, and now I was Jace again. Not that I minded.

I haven't sung since then, since she died, and I didn't know when I was going to again. My voice was something sheloved, and maybe... Maybe it died with her.

I put down my pen and then looked at dad and Rose, laughing on the console, Mickey just pressing a random button. "And that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes? Do you remember? the way she looked at you! And then she opens her mouth and fire comes out!"

"I thought I was going to get frazzled!"

"Yeah." Dad was giggling, his eyes bright and twinkling. "One minute she's standing there, and the next minute roar!"

Mickey was hanging on to their every word. "Yeah. where was that, then? What happened?"

And as usual they weren't valuing him like they should. "Oh, it was on this er, this er planet thing. Asteroid. It's a long story, you had to be there."

"Er, what're you doing that for, Mickey?" I asked him, getting to my feet, carefully avoiding getting my heels stuck in the grated floor.

"Because your dad me to."

Which was news to my dad. "When was that?"

Mickey frowned a little. "About half an hour ago." Oh, dad!

"You can let go now."

"Well, how long's it been since I could've stopped?" We both looked at dad, and I brushed down my skirt, used to the feeling of my legs now. I was an 18th Century French woman.

He made a small face. "Ten minutes?" I looked at him sharply. "Twenty? Twenty nine?"

And our friend finally realised what had happened. "You just forgot me!"

"No, no, no. I was just, I was, I was calibrating. I was just. No, I know exactly what I'm doing."

Then the time rotor blew up.

"What's happened?"

I grabbed the monitor, looking through everything, the swirls still making perfect sense to me, like they always did. "The time vortex is gone. That's impossible. It's just gone. Brace yourself! We're going to crash!"

We landed hard, and I crashed into dad, and he held me close as the gas masks dropped, the power leaving, not even enough left over for the TARDIS to tell me the time. No colours. "Everyone all right? Jacey? Rose? Mickey?"

"I'm fine." Mick nodded. "I'm okay. Sorry. Yeah."

"She's dead." We breathed, staring at the console. "The TARDIS is dead."

Rose looked between us. "You can fix it?"

I shook my head sadly, trying to press some form of energy into her, but there was nothing. "There's nothing to fix. She's perished. The last TARDIS in the universe. Extinct."

She looked horrified for a moment. "We can get help, yeah?"

"Where from?" Dad asked, keeping hold of my hand as I kept trying. "Jace, stop, it won't work. It's OK."

"Well, we've landed." I told him softly, having to think about not speaking French. "We've got to be somewhere."

But he shook his head. "We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension."

"Otherwise known as London." Mickey called from the door. "London, England, Earth. Hold on." He kept going out, picking up a discarded newspaper as we followed after him. "First of February this year not exactly far flung, is it?"

"So this is London." Mickey agreed with me. "Your city."

He grinned at me. "That's the one."

"Just as we left it." The man agreed with me. "And that includes the Zeppelins?"

Now Mickey finally saw them. "What the hell?"

One of them passed overhead, and Rose gasped as she watched it go. "That's beautiful."

"Okay, so it's London with a big international Zeppelin festival."

Dad finally realised. "This is not your world."

"But if the date's the same, it's parallel, right?" He asked us, and I nodded with a small smile. "Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins. Am I right? I'm right, aren't I?"

Dad agreed with him, holding my hand so tight. "Must be."

Rose was a little confused. "So, a parallel world where-"

"Oh, come on. You've seen it on films." Her boyfriend was explaining. "Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like, I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected."

"And he's still alive." she was staring at an advert for Vitex Lite, cherry, with a random guy on it. "A parallel world and my dad's still alive."

"Don't look at it, Rose." Dad told her. "Don't even think about it. This is not your world."

She was shaking her head. "But he's my dad and" The advert told us to trust him on something. "Well, that's weird. But he's real. He's a success. He was always planning these daft little schemes. Health food, drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it."

"Rose, if you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now. Stop looking at it. Your father's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is a Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. You can't see him. Not ever."

And then we left Mickey with her, and went back into the TARDIS, both working hard on the console, trying to get her to do something, anything. Until Mickey came back in. "I told you to keep an eye on her."

He shrugged a little. "She's all right."

"She goes wandering off. Parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house. All those temptations calling out." Dad snapped, and I frowned a little. I may be in my 40's now, but there was still things out there to temp me. If mum and dad were still around?

"Oh, so it's just Rose, then? Nothing out there to tempt me and Mickey?" I asked dad with a raised eyebrow.

That made him sigh a little. "Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything. If I could just get this thing to-" He kicked the console.

"Did that help?" I asked him sarcastically.

"Yes."

"Did that hurt?"

"Yes." He started hopping, rubbing his toes. "Ow."

"You idiot." I sighed, rubbing my eyes, my make up coming away a little before fixing itself. I'd changed since I'd last been in the TARDIS. "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws it's power from the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine."

Mickey frowned a little. "But I've seen it in comics. People go hopping from one alternative world to another. It's easy."

Dad shook his head, pulling me onto the jump seat next to him. "Not in the real world. It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."

That didn't sound promising. "Then how did we get here?"

"I don't know." He admitted, playing with the ring on my hand. He never could sit still. "Accident? Should've been impossible. Now we're trapped. What's that?" A tiny green light was reflecting onto Mickey's face and my long pianist fingers. "That, there. Is that a reflection? It's a light! Is it? Is that a light? I think that's a light. That's all we need. We've got power! Jacey, Mickey, we've got power! Ha!"

He dove under the main console, pulling things apart to get to something that was showing light, that was showing that the TARDIS was still alive somehow, that one tiny part was holding on. "It's alive!"

Mickey was staring at it in confusion. "What is it?"

"It's nothing. It's tiny." I laughed, taking it out of his hand. "One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside."

"Enough to get us home?"

"Not yet." Dad told him, smiling brightly. "I need to charge it up."

His face lit up for a moment. "We could go outside and lash it up to the National Grid."

"Wrong sort of energy. It's got to come from our universe."

"But we don't have anything."

"There's me." I sighed, going to sing, to put my own life energy into it, but something stopped me, remembering Reinette singing along with me. So I turned on my colours, using my sonic manipulation to put some energy into it.

Dad frowned a little, but took it back and put something into it himself, breathing on it softly. "I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second."

The light dimmed a little. "It's going out. Is that okay?"

"It's on a recharging cycle." He explained to me. "It'll loop round, power back up and be ready to take us home in, oo, twenty four hours?"

Huh... "So that gives us twenty four hours on a parallel world?"

"Shore leave." Dad nodded a little. "As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem. Let's go and tell her." He took my hand, and then lead me outside, still holding the power cell. "There you are. You all right? No applause. I fixed it." No, we fixed it. "Twenty four hours, then we're flying back to reality. What is it?"

She held up her phone. "My phone connected. There's this Cybus Network. It finds your phone. It gave me Internet access." Really?

"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world."

"I don't exist".

Wait, what? "What do you mean?"

"There's no Rose Tyler. I was never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie. He still married mum but they never had kids." She looked at me. "And Jaclyn Monroe was never born. Lucie Miller-Monroe never met the Doctor. No Jace." My. My mum? She was here?

Dad wasn't happy. "Give me that phone."

"They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me. I've got to see him. Jace probably feels the same."

He didn't even look at me. "You can't."

She shook her head a little. "I just want to see him."

"I can't let you."

"You just said twenty four hours!"

The Doctor was really not happy. "You can't become their daughter, that's not the way it works. Jace, Mickey, tell her."

Mum... "Twenty four hours, yeah?" I asked him, putting my bag over my shoulder, getting ready to put my headphones in. 30 years of no Green Day. How did I survive?

"Where're you going? Jaclyn!"

"Well, I can do what I want." I smiled. "I'm 40 odd years old, dear Father, and I can look after myself."

Rose was backing away too, as Mickey followed me. "I've got the address and everything."

It was not my dads day. "Stay where you are, all of you. Rose, come back here! Mickey, come back here right now! Jaclyn, come on, now!"

"I just want to see him."

"Yeah, I've got things to see and all. Don't worry, Jace will look after me!" Yeah, or just leave you as I track down the old person my mum would probably looking after.

Dad stared at him. "Like what?"

"Well, you don't know anything about me, do you? It's always about Rose, even Jace has been an after thought recently, since she stopped being a little kid. I'm just a spare part, and she's become one too."

"I'm sorry. I've got to go."

I stared dad down, still backing away. "Go on, then. There's no choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us. It's never going to be me or Mickey, is it?"

He hesitated, before running after Rose. "Back here, twenty four hours!"

"Yeah. If I haven't found something better." Mickey muttered, taking my hand lightly as he used to. Well, still did in his time line. Time was funny like that, both life and death to my kind, keeping us alive, but without access to the Time Vortex was poison, like a drug we couldn't live without. It nearly killed me.

But Mickey was still fond in my memory, and I remembered that he always felt left out, apart from when I was there, because I knew how it felt to be left out, to look into something from the outside. We reached wherever he was going, and we passed an army roadblock. "Are weall right to get past?"

The soldier nodded. "Yeah. No bother. Curfew doesn't start till ten."

"There's a curfew?"

The guy looked at me strangely, though I was used to men staring. "Course there is. Where you been living, mate? Up there with the toffs? You look like one, see how you're dressed."

From street girl to French Aristocracy... "I wish." I smiled sweetly. "See you."

Mickey's grip on my hand got tighter when he knocked on the door, an old West Indian woman calling from inside. "Who's that there?" The door opened, and the woman having a white stick and a weird pair of earpods. "Who is it? I know you're there. Shame on you, tricking an old lady. I've got nothing worth stealing. And don't think I'm going to disappear! You're not going to take me."

Oh, now she seemed awesome. "Hi."

"Is that you?"

"It's me." Mickey agreed. "I came home. I brought a friend."

"Ricky and Jackie?" Excuse me? I didn't exist here. And My name may be Jaclyn, but I hated Jackie.

But my friend found it hilarious. "It's Mickey. And Jace."

The woman didn't look impressed. "I know my own grandson's name. It's Ricky, and his girlfriends name is Jackie. Now, come here." Mickey hugged the woman, as I stared. Girlfriend?! I was here, and I was apparently Mickey's girlfriend. What the hell?!

"Okay, I'm Ricky. Of course I am. Ricky, that's me." He smiled, just happy to be able to hug his gran. Before she slapped him. "Ow!"

"You stupid boy. Where have you been?"

"Ow! Stop hitting me!" Safe to say Mickey had an authoritarian upbringing.

"It's been days and days! I keep hearing all these stories. People disappearing off the streets. There's nothing official on the download but there're all these rumours, and, and whispers. I thought that God had disappeared you, leaving this poor girl alone! I've always said, she's the best thing that ever happened to you, she's been amazing, this gorgeous woman."

My so called boyfriend looked behind the woman at the staircase. "That carpet on the stairs, I told you to get it fixed. You're going to fall and break your neck." Oh God...

She smiled at him. "Well, you get it fixed for me."

"I should have done way back." He sighed, shaking his head. "I guess I'm just kind of useless."

"Now, I never said that."

Mickey was really sad now, I could see the mellower tones in his usually light blue voice, now green and yellow. "I am, though. And I'm sorry, gran. I'm so sorry."

The Old woman shook her head a little. "Don't talk like that. Do you know what you two need? A nice sit down and a cup of tea. You got time?"

"For you, I've got all the time in the world. Come on, Jacks." Great, I'd become a middle aged blonde... Never mind. I was 45, so yeah. I was a middle aged blonde woman. Perfect.

"Oh, you say that, but it's all talk." She shook her head, backing away a little. "It's those new friends of yours. I don't trust them."

OK, that sounded interesting. "What friends are they?"

She shook her head at me. "Don't pretend you don't know, Missus. You've been seeing them. Missus Chan told me. Driving about all helter skelter in that van."

"What van's that, then?"

"You know full well! Don't play games with me." His Gran snapped at the pair of us, as a van came closer. For gods sake. "Get inside."

But then someone jumped out of it, grabbing me and Mickey. "I've been looking for you two everywhere!" And then we were in the van, and he started to drive off. "Jackie, you were the one who told us you don't contact your family because it puts them in danger. Well, Ricky's family, sorry." So I didn't have family then, ok. I was enjoying working this out, actually.

"Yeah. Jackie said that." I nodded a little. "Course I did, just testing."

The man was nodding. "I saw them. I taped them. They went round Blackfriars gathering up the homeless like the child catcher. They must've took four dozen."

A woman in the drivers seat started to speak, and I looked at her, memorising her vocal patterns. "The vans were hired out to a company called International Electromatics. But I did a protocol search. Turns out that's a dummy company established by guess who?"

"I don't know. Who?"

"Cybus Industries!" Who were they when they were at home?

"Well, now we've got evidence." What evidence?

Blonde Lady Driver nodded from the front. "Bad news is, they've arrested Thin Jimmy. So that just leaves you, Jacks."

OK, now what did that mean? "Leaves me what?"

"The Number One."

Man who grabbed us grinned a little brighter. "Top of the list. London's Most Wanted."

OK... Dad was going to kill me... "Okay, cool. Say that again?"

But then we reached the base of their operations, and he was distracted. "There's a light on. There's someone inside the base. Missis Moore, we've got visitors." They both grabbed guns and I internally rolled my eyes. Guns, ugh. "One, two, three, go!"

They burst in, leaving us to stare in horror as there were two familiar shapes stood looking at us, though myparallel had much lighter hair, a silvery blonde compared to my own ashen gold. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What're you doing there?"

"What are we doing here?" Parallel Mickey asked, walking a little closer as punk Rock me opened her hands a little. Right, still with an ability but what type? Still sound, or something else? "What are we doing there?"

Then the two others turned their guns on us. Best not to stop them yet, don't want her to know we're the same, sort of. They got to work scanning us, and I made sure they didn't pick up on the tracker in my bag, or the fact that everything in my bag was under a perception filter to look normal. "Theyclean. No bugs."

They were both circling us, and I was transfixed by my double, seeing how she was so, so similar. "But this is off the scale. He's flesh and blood. How did that happen?"

"Well, it could be that Cybus Industries have perfected the science of human cloning, or your father had a bike. And with Jackie, we, well, we don't know anything but you were dumped by that Lucie woman when you were left with her." Wait, Lucie wasn't her mum? She was so similar to me, but I was sure she was my mum. Dad was my birth dad, we'd already worked that out... But I was 57% Time Lord, where did that extra 7% come from?

"And your name is Mickey, not Ricky. You're Jace not Jackie, but we're both Jaclyn?"

"Mickey. Dad was Jackson Smith. Used to work at the key cutters in Clifton's Parade. Went to Spain, never came back."

"I'm Jaclyn, Jace, grew up with my mum Lucie until she, my stepdad, and my little sister died in a car crash. Then I spent years on the street until my real dad found me."

Jackie stared at me. "Lucie was never my mum, which means if we're sisters, she's not yours too."

Jake, as we'd learnt his name was, shook his head a little. "Be fair. What else could it be? You're still tracking down that curly haired blonde woman Lucie told you about." What? OK, this parallel was a bit different. I hoped, I'd already learnt I Harry wasn't my dad, I didn't want to lose Lucie too.

"I don't know. But she doesn't just look like me, she is exactly the same, apart from the hair. There's something else going on here, Jake."

"So, who are you lot?" Mickey asked as I looked at them with the colours, my synaethesia helping to memorise slight differences in our voices, to help later on. And with how Jackie was looking at us, she was doing the same. Sounds, Girl of Colours, but was she the Bad Wolf?

Ricky raised an eyebrow, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend. So weird, he was still like my big, but younger, brother. "We? We are the Preachers. As in Gospel Truth. You see? No ear plugs. While the rest of the world downloads from Cybus Industries, we, we have got freedom. You're talking to London's Most Wanted, my Jacks, but target Number One is Lumic, and we are going to bring him down."

Oh, perfect. I had a purpose and nothing would stop me from fulfilling it. "From your kitchen?"

"Have you got a problem with that?"

"No, it's a good kitchen." Mickey, don't be scared of parallel us, we were better. We didn't live in a house without wifi.

Mrs Moore looked up from her computer in the corner, a special dongle in the side. "It's an upload from Gemini."

"Who's Gemini?"

They ignored us. "The vans are back. They're moving out of Battersea. Looks like Gemini was right. Lumic's finally making a move."

"And we are right behind him. Pack up, we're leaving." Then we went quickly, and they all checked their weapons, bar Mickey, though Jackie and I didn't have one. They knew what she was then, but was she a Time Lord or just Human Plus?

But then we got to wherever they wanted us to be, and we were hiding in some bushes, outside a swanky party. "I don't know what they're doing, but this seems to be the target. Big house, fair bit of money. Now we have got to find a way to get in."

Back in the van, Mrs Moore was back on the laptop, after Jackie did something to it for her before she found what she was looking for, "I've identified the address. It belongs to Peter Tyler, the Vitex millionaire."

"Pete Tyler?" Mickey and I questioned, because I met him, before I got eaten by a reaper and came back when he was dead, and he was really nice.

"He's listed as one of Lumic's henchmen." The couple told us, and I shivered at the idea of intimacy. "A traitor to the state."

Mickey frowned a little, and I took his hand as I saw the fear in his voice. "But we've got to get in there."

"Now, shut it, duplicate. That's what I just said." A ramp was dropped down from the back of the lorry. "What are they doing?" Heavy feet started to march down it and onto the gravel, bold and black as Jackie and I flinched at each one. "What the hell are they?" Yeah, I'd like to know too.

Then they attacked the party, and I saw Rose and dad come running out, so Ricky and Jake started to shoot at them, as Jackie and I both aimed a sonic blast at them, only that managing to knock them back..

"Oh my God, look at you." Then Rose hugged Ricky and dad hugged me tight. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

He stared at her, as my parallel glared and pulled her off. "Yeah. No offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?"

Mickey grabbed her. "Rose! That's not me. That's like the other one. Like Jace."

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickey's. At least I have two Jace's."

"It's Ricky."

"It's Jackie."

Oh, come on, not the important part. "But there's more of them."

"We're surrounded."

Dad took charge, still holding me. He was scared to lose me, that was a comfort. "Put the guns down. Bullets won't stop them. Neither will the sonic blasts, Jace's." Jake was still shooting but we stopped him. "No! Stop shooting, now. We surrender! Hands up. There's no need to damage us. We're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed."

The metal men stared at us. "You are rogue elements."

Oh God no... "But we surrender."

"You are incompatible."

"But this is a surrender."

"You will be deleted."

"But we're surrendering!" Dad shouted, putting me behind me as Ricky did the same with Jacky. "Listen to me, we surrender!"

They didn't care though. "You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cyberman, but you will perish under maximum deletion." They held out a deadly arm towards us. "Delete. Delete. Delete!"

But then dad aimed at the power cell at them, and our combined energies shot out and they all fell back, Ricky staring at us. "What the hell was that?"

"We'll have that instead. Run!"

Mrs Moore then sounded the van's horn. "Everybody, in!"

"I've got to go back." Pete said, going to run back. "My wife's in there."

"Anyone inside that house is dead." Dad told him sternly and forced me towards it. "If you want to help, then don't let her die for nothing. You've got to come with us right now."

"Come on! Get a move on!" Mrs Moore shouted again as Jackie, Ricky and Jake got inside, followed after by Pete.

Rose was still staring out at the house. "Rose, she's not your mother."

She nodded a little. "I know."

"Come on." I pulled her into the van and Mrs Moore shook her head.

"Finished chatting? Never seen a slower getaway in my life!"

Jackie, the double of me, stared at what was still in dads hand. "What was that thing?"

"Little bit of technology from our home."

I took it out of his hand, pressing more sonic energy into it carefully, feeling the power want to make me sing, but I couldn't. "It's stopped glowing. Has it run out?"

He shook his head, kissing mine. "It's on a revitalising loop. It'll charge back up in about four hours. You, however, need more than that. You're sleeping when we get back."

Ricky sighed. "Right. So, we don't have a weapon anymore. Jackie and the double, they weren't enough. I've seen her take down whole buildings and she barely moved them." Actually, that was a good point. Maybe her voice, our voice, but I couldn't. Not after Reinette.

But Jake picked up his gun. "Yeah, we've got weapons. Might not be one of those metal things, but they're good enough for men like him. Have Jackie shatter his spine." Oh, now that was a lovely image.

"Leave him alone." Rose told him. "What's he done wrong?"

"Oh, you know, just laid a trap that's wiped out the Government and left Lumic in charge."

Pete raised an eyebrow. "If I was part of all that, do you think I'd leave my wife inside?"

"Maybe your plan went wrong." Jackie shrugged. "Still gives us the right to execute you, though. I like the idea of shattering a spine, always wanted to try it."

I glared at all of them, getting angry. "Talk about executions, you'll make me your enemy. And take some really good advice. You don't want to do that. Because I can do everything she can, maybe more, because I've had training on what we are."

Ricky shrugged, Jackie sitting on his lap. "All the same, we have evidence that says Pete Tyler's been working for Lumic since twenty point five."

"Is that true?"

The couple both nodded. "Tell them, Mrs M."

She spoke up from the front, driving the getaway car. "We've got a government mole who feeds us information. Lumic's private files, his South American operations, the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week."

"Broadcast from Gemini?" Knew it. The tones from that message they got, the waves went back to him. Like I said, training.

"And how do you know that?"

Pete nodded. "I'm Gemini. That's me."

Ricky didn't look impressed. "Yeah, well you would say that."

"Encrypted wavelength six five seven using binary nine." They were all staring now. "That's the only reason I was working for Lumic. To get information. I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services. What do I get? Scooby Doo and his gang. They've even got the van."

Mickey shook his head. "No, no, no. But the Preachers know what they're doing. Jackie said she's London's Most Wanted."

Now my double blushed herself. "Yeah, that's not exactly-"

"Not exactly what?"

"I'm London's Most Wanted for parking tickets."

Pete rolled his eyes. "great."

"Yeah, they were deliberate. I was fighting the system. Park anywhere, that's me. Besides, I barely even exist. Never had a home, I only have a juvie record when I was caught shop lifting, that's when I got a name. Jaclyn, and I became Jackie."

"Good policy." Dad beamed, holding my hand tighter as he remembered that I'd once been on the streets. "We do much the same. I'm the Doctor, by the way, if anyone's interested. I'm Jace's dad."

Our unnatural blonde waved next. "And I'm Rose. Hello."

Parallel father Tyler stared at her. "Even better. That's the name of my dog. Still, at least I've got the catering staff on my side."

"I knew you weren't a traitor." She smiled at him. Not your dad...

"Why is that, then?"

She shrugged a little. "I just did."

He sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily. "They took my wife."

"She might still be alive." Rose pointed out, but that wasn't good either apparently.

"That's even worse. Because that's what Lumic does. He takes the living and he turns them into those machines."

"Cybermen." Dad corrected. "They're called Cybermen. And I'd take those ear pods off, if I were you. You never know. Lumic could be listening." He indicated for me to zap them while he kept talking. "But he's overreached himself. He's still just a businessman. He's assassinated the President. All we need to do is get to the city and inform the authorities. Because I promise you, this ends tonight."

We got out of the van in the city, and looked around as people were walking in lines like zombies. "What the hell?" Jake asked, walking towards someone as I saw all the signals controlling them, telling them where to go.

Rose looked at the both of us. "What's going on?"

Could she not tell? "It's the ear-pods. Lumic's taken control."

"Can't we just, I don't know, take them off?"

She went to, and I saw quite how in depth the signal was going. "Don't! Cause a brainstorm. Human race. For such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

"Hey, Come and see." Jake called, and we followed, seeing more people around the corner, as well as a squad of Cybers.

"Where are they all going?"

"I don't know." Dad admitted. "Lumic must have a base of operations."

But Pete knew. "Battersea. That's where he was building his prototypes."

This was ridiculous, why would you do this to people without their permission, it was horrific. "Why's he doing it?"

"He's dying. This all started out as a way of prolonging life, of keeping the brain alive at any cost."

Then I remembered what the Cybermen were, looking back at dad. "The thing is, I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I? The head. Those handle shapes in Van Statten's museum, back when I was 14."

He nodded a little, looking like he wished that I was still that age. Hey, I was French, ish.. "Ah, there are Cybermen in our universe. They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy. This lot are a parallel version, and they're starting from scratch right here on Earth. Mondas point 2."

"What the hell are you two on about?" Pete asked, not looking impressed.

"Never mind that. Come on, we need to get out of the city. Okay, split up. Mrs Moore, you look after that bloke. Jake, Jackie, distract them." He kissed my double and she held him tight. "Go right, I'll go left. We'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move."

Mickey looked at us now. "I'm going with him." He kissed Rose before running after.

"Come on, let's go."

We started to run too, before I stumbled to a stop, my heels not very useful as we saw more Cybermen patrols. "There!" We ducked down a side street, before hiding behind a load of rubbish bins, and Jackie and I transmitted a signal to scramble them, and they marched on. "Go."

Bridge Street wasn't too far away, but we still spent a while waiting for Mickey and Ricky, but only one of them turned back up. "Here he is! Which one are you?" Jake asked him after a brief pause.

"I'm sorry. The Cybermen. He couldn't." Mickey. I knew that voice and so did Jackie, as she sobbed, starting to cry as she realised she'd lost the only person she cared about.

"Are you Ricky?" Jake asked him again, as Mrs Moore held my double up, holding her as she cried. "Are you Ricky?"

But Rose knew her man. "Mickey, that's you, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She hugged him as dad hugged me, and I thought about how we looked more like brother and sister than father and daughter. Maybe if I changed, like he did, I'd be younger again. But it would only be my appearance. "He tried. He was running. There was too many of them."

Jackie glared at him through her tears, black eyemake up streaming down her face. "Shut it."

Mickey still tried, thinking she was more like me, but we were nothing alike. She wasn't Lucie's daughter, and I had to be, dad was with her. "There was nothing I could do."

"I said just shut it." She screamed, her voice making the windows around us rattle, even cracking. "Don't even talk about him. You're nothing, you are. Nothing. He's gone..."

Dad shook his head a little. "We can mourn him when London is safe. But now, we move on." He lead the way to where the Cybermen were going, keeping us all hidden. They'd been using Battersea. "The whole of London's been sealed off, and the entire population's been taken inside that place. To be converted."

Rose was staring in there, and other me was more determined than ever, to avenge her lost love. "We've got to get in there and shut it down."

"How do we do that?"

What else? "Oh, Dad'll think of something."

Micks stared at the pair of us. "You're just making this up as you go along."

"Yep." We grinned. "But we do it brilliantly."

Mrs Moore then joined us, using her Cybus Industries laptop, making me wonder why she'd joined the Preachers. "That's a schematic of the old factory. Look. Cooling tunnels underneath the plant. Big enough to walk through"

"We go under there and up into the control centre?" I asked, kneeling down and looking, memorising the colours and how they moved.

"There's another way in." We all looked at Pete. "Through the front door. If they've taken Jackie for upgrading, that's how she'll get in."

Jake stared at him. "We can't just go strolling up."

Mrs Moore held something up. "Or we could, with these. Fake ear pods. Dead. No signal. But put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd."

"Then that's my job."

Did he get how hard that would be? "You'd have to show no emotion. None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away."

"How many of those you got?"

"Just two sets."

"Okay." Rose nodded. "If that's the best way of finding Jackie, then I'm coming with you."

Pete stared at her. "Why does she matter to you?"

She didn't bother explaining. "We haven't got time. Doctor, Jace, I'm going with him, and that's that."

"No stopping you, is there?" She smiled and agreed. "Tell you what. We can take the ear pods at the same time. Give people their minds back so they don't walk into that place like sheep. Jakey-boy, Jackie-Jacks? Lumic's transmitting the control signal. It must be from over there." Dad waved the sonic in the general direction, and we both flinched. Always did it wrong...

"On the zeppelin, you see, dad?" He nodded, looking sheepish. "Great big transmitter. Good thing Lumic likes showing off. Reckon you could take it out?"

Jackie nodded, clicking her knuckles. "Consider it done. Sonic pulse should be enough."

"Mrs Moore, would you care to accompany me and my daughter into the cooling tunnels?"

"How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?"

I nodded, determined to avenge those already lost. "We attack on three sides. Above, between, below. We get to the control centre, we stop the conversion machines."

Mickey nodded a little. "What about me?"

Dad hesitated. "Mickey. You can er"

"What, stay out of trouble? Be the tin dog? No, those days are over. I'm going with Jake and Jackie."

"We don't need you, idiot. I'm the one with sonic manipulation and a voice that shatters windows."

"I'm not an idiot! You got that? I'm offering to help."

They rolled their eyes. "Whatever."

I hugged him tight. "Mickey. Good luck."

"Yeah, you too, be safe, Jacey. Rose, I'll see you later."

She nodded, looking awkward. "Yeah, you'd better."

"If we survive this, I'll see you back at the TARDIS."

"That's a promise. I promised to look out for Jace, for Jacks." Aw, that was cute.

We said goodbye to Rose and made out ways down the tunnels, and I hugged my arms around myself. "It's freezing."

Dad took off his jacket, putting it around my shoulders as we walked. "Any sign of a light switch?"

"Can't see a thing." Mrs Moore sighed, shivering herself. "But I've got these. A device for every occasion."

She handed us both a torch on a headband, but I smiled, pressing my hand to the cold stone, knowing the right resonation before the entire tunnel was bathed in a light blue glow. "All stone has a natural phosphorescence. You just have to listen to it."

The smile I got from dad told me he was proud, but he was worried about the Cybers down here. Unactive, at least for now though. "How did you get into this, then, rattling along with the Preachers?"

"Oh, I used to be ordinary." She replied, walking along in front. "Worked at Cybus Industries, nine to five, till one day, I find something I'm not supposed to. A file on the mainframe. All I did was read it. Then suddenly I've got men with guns knocking in the middle of the night. Life on the run. Then I found the Preachers. They needed a techie, so I, I just sat down and taught myself everything. Jackie taught me a bit, what with her being a hacker. Trying to find the song she came from, she says." A curly haired song, she sounded nice.

There had to be more, she was so maternal toward Jackie. "What about Mr Moore?"

She sighed a little. "Well, he's not called Moore. I got that from a book, Mrs Moore. It's safer not to use real names. But he thinks I'm dead. It was the only way to keep him safe. Him and the kids. Same age as Jackie by now, about 19, 20. She acts so much older." Because she probably was. "What about you? Got any family, or?"

"Oh, who needs family? I've got the whole world on my shoulders and the lights of sound in my eyes. Go on, then. What's your real name?"

"Angela Price. Don't tell a soul."

Dad grinned, taking my hand lightly. "Not a word."

But then the Cybers started to wake up, dark grey and stiff and we were running, up a ladder and through a trapdoor. "Get up! Quick! Quick!"

We beat them, and I deadlocked it on impulse before another Cyberman cam up behind us. But Mrs Moore had an electromagnetic bomb, and it collapsed in a haze of sparks. "Now, let's have a look. Know your enemy. A logo on the front. Lumic's turned them into a brand. Heart of steel, but look."

"Is that flesh?" She asked horrified, as dad picked it up, and I muttered to myself in French as we looked, memorising how the colours fitted together inside. Know the weaknesses.

"Hmmm. Central nervous system. Artificially grown then threaded throughout the suit so it responds like a living thing. Well, it is a living thing. Oh, but look." He touched something lightly. "Emotional inhibitor. Stops them feeling anything."

Our friend frowned a little. "But why?"

"It's still got a human brain. Imagine its reaction if it could see itself, realise itself inside this thing." I whispered softly. "They'd go insane."

"So they cut out the one thing that makes them human."

Dad nodded, wrapping an arm around me. "Because they have to. And Jace, English." Damn, I kept speaking French.

But then the thing started speaking again. "Oh, my God. It's alive. It can feel."

"We broke the inhibitor." I breathed, seeing that the colour had drained from it. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Why so cold?"

"Can you remember your name?" Dad asked her.

There was a hesitation. "Sally. Sally Phelan."

"You're a woman."

"Where's Gareth?"

Mrs Moore frowned a little. "Who's Gareth?"

"He can't see me. It's unlucky the night before."

Oh, oh God... "You're getting married."

She sounded so, so tired... "I'm cold. I'm so cold."

"It's all right. You sleep now, Sally. Just go to sleep." I pressed my hand to the front of the cold metal, and I turned her off. I had a plan. "Sally Phelan didn't die for nothing, because that's the key. The emotional inhibitor. If we could find the code behind it, the cancellation code, then feed it throughout the system into every Cyberman's head, they'd realise what they are."

"And what happens then?"

We both looked at dad. "I think it would kill them. Could we do that?"

Mrs Moore nodded. "We've got to. Before they kill everyone else. There's no choice, Doctor, Jace. It's got to be done."

But then she stood up, and the Cyber behind her killed her. "No! No, you didn't have to kill her!"

"Sensors detect a binary vascular system in you both, as well as a genetic match." Yeah, he was my dad. "You are unknown upgrades. You will be taken for analysis."

The Cyberman took us to the main room, where Rose and Pete were. So dad decided to be annoyingly sarcastic. "We've been captured, but don't worry, Rose and Pete are still out there. They can rescue us. Oh well, never mind." But then he went serious, looking at Rose. "You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. But they got Jackie."

"We were too late. Lumic killed her."Pete agreed, looking like he was in shock.

"Then where is he, the famous Mister Lumic?" I asked, getting ready to take this building down on all of us, just to protect everyone else around us. "Don't we get the chance to meet our Lord and Master?"

A Cyber just turned to us. "He has been upgraded."

Oh, now that was interesting. "So he's just like you?"

"He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller."

A door opened and then he came out in an ungraded wheelchair. "This is The Age of Steel and I am its Creator."

Except for our awesome buddies! At that precise moment they got everyone out from under their control, and they ran screaming from the building. "That's our friends at work. Good boys and girl! Mister Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will.!

"I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the ear pods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world.I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace and unity and uniformity."

Oh come on! "And imagination?" Dad questioned. "What about that? The one thing that lead you here, imagination, you're killing it dead!"

"What is your name and the name of your offspring?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"I'm Calliope, or Jace. CJ, I might become." That sounded good and it linked my human and Time Lord life.

Lumic wasn't impressed though. "A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken, nor they in need of offspring."

How did he not see this? "Yeah, but that's it. That's exactly the point! Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man. I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room, and even then my daughter is. But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality and children, then what's there to strive for, eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop. You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people."

"You are proud of your emotions, of your child."

"Oh, yes. I couldn't be prouder." Awh.

"Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain? The loss of a child?"

He told me, about my siblings that died in the war... "Yes. Yes I have."

Lumic was trying to bait him, to make him want the emotions to stop. "And they hurt?"

Dad nodded again. "Oh, yes."

"I could set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain? A life where your child will never die."

I growled softly. "You might as well kill me."

"Then I take that option."

"It's not yours to take." my dad told him sternly, holding me close. "You're a Cyber Controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart." Or hearts

But it didn't matter to him. "You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own."

"You just don't get it, do you? An army's nothing. Because those ordinary people, they're the key. The most ordinary person could change the world. Some ordinary man or woman, some idiot. All it takes is for him to find, say, the right numbers. Say the right codes. Say, for example, the code behind the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him.Because even an idiot knows how to use computers these days.Knows how to get past firewalls and passwords. Lnows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under er. What was it, Pete? Binary what?"

Pete frowned a little. "Binary nine."

I finally got what dad meant. "An idiot could find that code. Cancellation code.And he'd keep on typing.Keep on fighting. Anything to save his friends."

"Your words are irrelevant."

"Yeah, talk too much, that's my problem." Dad grinned. "Lucky I got you that cheap tariff, Jacey, for all our long chats.On your phone."

"You will be deleted."

This guy really didn't get this, did he? "Yes. Delete, control, hash. All those lovely buttons. Then, of course, my particular favourite, send. And let's not forget how you seduced all those ordinary people in the first place."

Then my phone beeped and I looked at the code. "By making every bit of technology compatible with everything else. It's for you." I shoved the phone in the docking station, and the code transmitted, appearing on every screen like a virus.

Cybermen everywhere started clutching their heads in pain, and I saw one that managed to see how they looked. "I'm sorry."

"What have you done??"

"We gave them back their souls. They can see what you've done, Lumic, and it's killing them!"

Then we ran out as things started to explode, the exit blocked by writhing Cybers. "There's no way out!"

"Rose?" I looked at my phone. "Rose, can you hear me? Head for the roof!"

"It's Mickey. He says head for the roof." I put it to my ear. "Next time, call the right number, sweetie, this is Jace."

We made a break for the metal stairs, fires coming out behind us. But Mickey was driving azeppelin. "Mickey, where'd you learn to fly that thing?"

"Uh, this is your double, twin. You'd be surprised at what I can do. I knew how to hotwire a car, and I'm about 40." So was I!

Pete was staring at it. "You've got to be kidding."

"Jacey, Rose, get up."

We grabbed hold of the ladder, and Mickey was laughing on the other end. "Hold on tight, we're going up! Welcome to Mickey Smith's Airline. Please enjoy your flight. Woo!"

"We did it! We did it!"

Something heavy pulled at the ladder, nearly making us lose their grip. Cyber Lumic. Dad threw his sonic down to the person at the bottom, Pete."Pete! Take this! Use it! Hold the button down! Press it against the rope. Just do it!"

"Jackie Tyler. This is for her!"

The rope finally gave way, and Lumic fell, being engulfed by the exploding power station. We made it.

DW

I put the power cell on the console and grinned back at dad who hugged me tight as the TARDIS came back to life, telling me everything I usually saw. "You little beauty. Your voice, it'll come back. I promise. It hurts, she's your first loss, but you'll get used to it. God, I wish that you didn't have to..."

"Thank you..." I breathed, so glad I had him, to not be alone, the only of my kind. "We need to go.Rose? We've only got five minutes of power. We've got to go."

But Mickey came to our rescue, well, dads rescue as he hated what he was wearing. Apparently posh suits were cursed. "Here it is. I found it. Not a crease."

He beamed. "My suit! Good man."

I turned to the two natives left. "Now then, Jackie, Jake, we've got to run. But one more thing. Mrs Moore. Her real name was Angela Price. She's got a husband out there, and children. Find them. Tell them how she died saving the world."

"Yeah, course we will."

"Off we go, then."

Mickey hesitated. "Er, thing is, I'm staying."

I stared at him. "You're doing what?"

"You can't." Rose told him, looking as horrified as I felt. No, I couldn't lose him!

"It sort of balances out, because this world lost its Ricky, but there's me. And there's work to be done with all those Cybermen still out there. Someone needs to look out for Jackie, like I did for you Jace, get her to stop hating."

I shook my head. "But you can't stay."

"Jace, my gran's here. She's still alive. My old gran, remember her?" He looked at Rose who nodded. "She needs me."

Please... "What about me? What if I need you?" His ex asked him, looking hard.

"Yeah, but Rose, you don't. It's just you and him, isn't it. We had something a long time ago, but not anymore. Even Jace cared more about me than you, and the Doctor still went with you over his daugher."

"Well, we'll come back." I told him, my eyes filling with hot, salty tears. "We can travel anywhere. Come and see you, yeah?"

Dad shook his head, taking my hand. "We can't. I told you, travel between parallel worlds is impossible. We only got here by accident. We, we fell through a crack in time. When we leave, I've got to close it. We can't ever return."

"Doctor." Dad shook his hand, before putting my phone in there.

"Take Jace's phone. It's got the code. Get it out there. Stop those factories. And good luck, Mickey the idiot."

He grinned a little. "Watch it."Then he went into the TARDIS, and then Rose followed. "Thanks, Jacey. We've had a laugh though, haven't we? Seen it all, been there and back. Who would have thought, me and you off the old estate, flying through the stars. The little street girl that outran the police when they came for her, and I let hide in my flat." My mouth dropped. "Yeah, I knew you were there. The room was too clean."

"Thank you. Thank you for being there, and I hope you find what you need in life here." I told him with a watery smile before I hugged him tight. "I'll miss you, and I know she will too. You're not an idiot, never were."

Mickey smiled, hugging me back. "Go on, don't miss your flight."

So then I got back into TARDIS, and didn't look back as we left him. Left him to be brilliant.


	19. Stories In The Dark

The Doctor:

Jace had been quiet since we left Mickey, one of the people she cared most about. We'd been to the 50's, to Kroptor, stopped a weird Absorbalof type thing, related to the Slitheen, and stopped a girl who snatched me and Rose away from her into a drawing, but she'd still been quiet. And then I found out why, when I did a routine check of the med stocks.

There was a copy of companion DNA missing. Lucie Miller. I checked through the files, and there was a recent DNA test, a pathology one. Jaclyn Smith, father, The Doctor, AKA Legacy. Mother, unknown.

What? No, that couldn't be right. I knew her mother, I loved her mother until she decided to leave, going off to travel herself around the world. Lucie was the woman who raised her, and who else would I ever be with? Rose? No, the TARDIS would have known that DNA, but there was no one else.

But why would she ever even want to see if Lucie was her real mum or not? There had to be a reason that doubt was put into her mind, and what was that? Jackie, the other one, she said that she was left with Lucie, but Lucie just left her on the streets. She needed to see if that was a parallel or not. But it wasn't.

"Jace? Jace!" I called, following the sound of music coming through the corridors, a recording of Jace's singing as Lady Belle Voix, someone having gone back in time to see it. Well, I was her number one fan. "Jaclyn, I want to talk to you!"

She stuck her head out of the room she was in, a spare one hidden near the Eye. "Dad, what? I'm busy."

"No, you're not. You're going to tell me about this." I held up the report for her DNA test. "Pathology results. For you. Confirmed me, yeah. But not Lucie. Why did you even try that, baby girl?"

Jace scowled a little. "I'm not a baby. At all. Jackie said that she was the parallel of me because I would have been like her if Lucie never chose to keep me. That I'd have been left on her doorstep, and she'd just moved me somewhere else as a toddler. About 3 and a half. Some woman you loved."

"Hey, no. She still raised you, Jace. In this universe, she is your mum."

"She barely spoke. Harry, my other dad, he spoke more. He was a bigger part of my life, she... she just... I loved her, because she was my mum. Or I thought she was. Curly haired Song. That's what Jackie said. What if that's my mum here? The same woman?"

She was really thinking about this, how she had a different mum out there, some blonde woman. "Jace, when did you last get a good nights sleep? Not since Reinette, I'd bet. I know, Jace, I know you want anything to take your mind off it, to keep running and not look back, and it doesn't work. Once you start, you won't stop. I know you won't and I don't want that life for you."

Jace, hugged her arm around herself, before brushing her own beautiful long blonde curls out of her face, looking so, so young, when really she was halfway through Time Lord maturity. 46 years old. "She was my best friend, and so was Mickey. Only one actually survived, but I won't see either ever again. I can't... I can't do this, I can't keep living when I know that no one will live with me. Every friend I ever make, they'll be with me for a while, and then they'll be gone."

I moved forward and hugged her close, kissing her long curls. "I know. I know it isn't fair, my Calliope... My Jace... I'm so sorry, love. But it's just what happens. It's who we are, Time Lords, Jace. My amazing little girl, the first of your kind..." She hid her face in my chest, and I wished I could take this all away from her, to let her live a normal life, but I couldn't. The Chameleon Arc wouldn't work, she was already part human. "There's no one like you, but that means no one can think like you. That woman, the woman who is really your mum... I don't know her. But maybe we'll find her, soon. Maybe we'll find her?"

"Maybe." Jace whispered. "But maybe I don't want to know why she left me, or why she lied to you, not telling you she had me. It's so confusing, dad... The fact that I'm so much older, but Rose, she's still the same. I was 15 nearly 16, and she's 20. Now she's still 20 and I'm 46."

"It's OK. It's OK, my amazing, fantastic Jace." I cupped her face and kissed her forehead. "Now, we need to go and sleep, because neither of us have for weeks at least. So, lets either go adopt another cat, or go to sleep. And I am not ready to replace Rain for a while, OK?"

She nodded with a small smile now, and I saw that she was unsteady on her feet. Jace was shattered, so I lead her back to her room, then lay her down on the bed, sitting in the armchair next to it. There were tonnes of sheet music around the room, all of it in her own hand, elegant and slanting. She learnt to compose when she was away. "Tell me a story."

Tell her a story? Well, my whole life was one. So, let's tell her mine.

"Once upon a time, there was a little boy. And he was from a far away kingdom, lost in the stars and the heavens, so when he became a man, he stole a box to run away and see the universe, and all of time." She smiled a little, and I kept going, smiling at her reaction. "He found friends as he went, that man and his granddaughter, whom he loved more than anything. First there was Barbara, and Ian, who taught his granddaughter, before she left to start a family of her own.

"Then there was Vicki, Katerina, Sara and Steven, all in a year before they had lives of theirs to get back to, and Dodo stayed even less. But then he changed when he was with Ben and Polly, before Jamie and Victoria, then Zoe after. He changed again after them, and his friends were made to forget him as his people called him home, furious with how he ignored their rules and principles, before banishing him to Earth.

"It was there the man met Liz, who went to the moon for her people, and later Jo, who found love in the Amazon. And after that, there with Sarah Jane. Now she was fantastic, and became great friends with a doctor, Harry. But I had to go home-" I stopped as she was now asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly. "Sleep well, my Jace. I love you."

Kissing her forehead, I got back to my feet, tucking her in and going back out into the corridor, but I went through to the music room with a handful of of the notes she composed, and sat down at the piano, starting to play what she wrote, the title So Long Sweet Memories, writing in our language. It was fast, and sad, but so, so beautiful, and I could imagine her voice coming up with words to go along with it, but her voice was locked inside her, locked in the sorrow of her loss.

I kept playing after, playing things I'd composed, or just things I made up, and lost track of how long I'd been there, because about 12 hours later my daughter came and sat next to me, joining in on what I was playing, just adding in bits and pieces, humming softly as we went. "You never finished the story dad. I fell asleep just after you spoke about Harry."

Of course she'd want to hear the rest of it. "There was Leela, and Romana, one of his own people, who went on to become the President of their race. He changed again soon after, before he met Adric, Nyssa and Teegan, who all mourned the man when he saved a world at the cost of his own life. Nyssa then left to save so many people, suffering from advanced leprosy, before Tourlough joined the team. initially, he was to hurt the man, but soon became his friend, before going back to school.

"Teegan went back to her home and job, just as Peri came, and the man sacrificed himself to save her, and changed yet again. The people who'd once exiled him brought him home again, and put him on trial when Melanie came, it ended with them making him change again, and Peri went home. But Mel went home soon after, leaving me to find Ace, and I took her to see the stars, reminding him so much of his daughter, but she went home too, to start working on making her life amazing.

"The man travelled alone for a while, before his old best friend was killed, and he asked the man to take his remains back to their home. But on the way, something happened, and he changed again, just as he met Grace. But Grace never wanted to travel, so he went on, meeting Lucie. Now, Lucie was beautiful, smart, funny and was never afraid to speak her mind. He loved her, so much, but a War had started in his home, so he made himself change, to become a warrior.

"But the War ended when he destroyed both his people and the enemy alike, and he thought he'd be alone. Until he found this beautiful flower, and heard a shining song, and suddenly he wasn't alone anymore. The man became younger, and he did whatever he could to keep the song going, and the flower alive, even sacrificing himself when needed. Because he loved them."

Jace sniffed a little, wiping her eyes as she stopped playing, and I wrapped an arm around her. "Does the story have a happy ending?"

Oh, Jace... "I don't know. Because the story hasn't finished yet, and neither has yours. Don't let it finish early, Calliope. Please. You need to understand that no matter how many people you love and lose, it's better than spending eternity alone."

"You borderline just quoted Tennyson at me, dad."

Did I? Oh, yes, I did. 'Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.' "Good point, my Jacey. Righty ho, Rose can't work out the TARDIS washing machine, so we're going to have to head back to her mums so she can use the one there."

"Why can't she use the washing machine, it's self explanatory. Plus, you put the clothes in, press the right buttons, add the time you want it to take, and it does it itself." Jace sighed, shaking her head as she started playing chopsticks. "I have a weird feeling about going to Earth right now. I don't know what it is."

I kissed her hair again, holding her close. "It's fine. I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe, Calliope. I'd do anything again and again to make sure that you were safe, because you're everything to me. I love you more than words can ever say."

"Dad, stop quoting poems and songs at me. You don't even realise your doing it, it's the Lion King all over again." Jacey giggled, looking up at me through her hair. Seriously, stop."

Now, that was something I didn't mean to do, it was just the fact that the quote worked very well with what I was trying to tell the Sycorax. But yeah, I needed to not quote things unless I meant to. Like when I told stories. We're all stories, but some are in the dark.

Gonna be skipping a couple of episodes, as you may have guessed, and I'm going to my favourite Rose eps, when she leaves. Sorry, not sorry. Series 3 and 4 may be mostly skipped, for a reason you will not appreciate. But it'll be worth it, as this story will keep going until the end of series 6 at least. Izzi Petrova xxx


	20. Empty Colours

Jace:

"Mum, it's us! We're back!" Rose shouted as we went into the Tyler flat, and Jackie came running out to greet us.

"Oh, I don't know why you two bother with those phones. You never use them!"

The girl who was once my elder laughed as dad came in behind, closing the door. "Shut up, come here!"

"Oh, I love you!"

"I love you!"

"I love you so much! And you you little cutie!" She forced me into the hug, before dad tried to make his way past. Not that Jacks was going to let him. "Oh no, you don't. Come here!" And then she kissed him. "Oh, you lovely big fella! Oh, you're all mine."

Safe to say he was suitably mollified by this stage, trying to get free. "Just, just, just put me down!"

This was definitely something I'd tease him about, if I couldn't get rid of this horrid feeling of dread, and the colours here were different. They were running, like there was something diluting them with neon, washing away the usual pastels of nature. Last time I'd seen this was in the other universe, with Parallel Jackie. But we couldn't get back there, Mickey was there forever and we'd never see him again.

I hadn't wanted to leave the TARDIS, but Rose pointed out that dad would get a lot of grief from Jackie if she didn't get to see me, which was a fair point, so I'd let her bully me into it, and I was regretting this. It didn't feel right and I was really feeling sick.

I came back into the conversation late, as a man made of static came into the room, the noise making bile rise in my throat, and I backed away retching, before following dad out of the flat to the tarmac, where more and more of them were, the colours of this world even more faded now, everywhere the ghosts touched, the colours slightly faded into their static and replaced it with the brighter, harsher one.

"They're everywhere!"

"Jace, look out!" Then one of them walked through me, the contents of my stomach finally deciding to leave as I vomited violently over the floor, breathing hard as dad held me up.

Jackie had followed us out, and looked at all the static ghosts around us. "They haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade."

Dad was staring at her in horror, holding me close as I reached the stage of just shaking after being sick. "What do you mean, shift? Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?"

"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?"

This, this was impossible, this couldn't right! "But no one's running or screaming or freaking out."

"Why should we?" She asked, then glanced at her watch. "Here we go. Twelve minutes past."

She lead the way back to the flat, and we took over the telly, while I nursed a cup of tea and some pain pills, and saw a Ghostwatch programme presented by the bloke from Cash in the Attic, the weather telling us where there were a lot of ghosts, someone married one, there were adverys for things. Even Eastenders!

"When did it start?"

"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down-"

Jackie, we meant the Ghosts, not the story line. First original one they'd had in years. "No, I mean worldwide."

She blinked a little. "Oh. That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran round screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much. Then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we're lucky."

"What makes you think it's granddad?" Rose asked her mum softly.

"It just feels like him." Jacks shrugged. "There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?"

But she shook her head, curled on the armchair. "I wish I could, mum, but I can't."

Jackie was desperate to get her daughter to "You've got to make an effort. You've got to want it, sweetheart.

Dad frowned a little now. "The more you want it, the stronger it gets."

"Sort of, yeah."

"Like a psychic link." I nodded, understanding now. "Of course you want your old dad to be alive, I'd want my other one too, and Katie, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in." I didn't really remember mum, she was sort of just there. Which was why a lot of me wanted to try and find my real one, to know why she left me there.

Jackie stared at me in horror. "You're spoiling it."

You poor woman... "I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes." Dad told her firmly. "Just a memory."

" But if they're not ghosts, what are they then?"

"Yeah, but they're human!" Jacks tried again. "You can see them. They look human."

Rose gave that one to her mother. "She's got a point. I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people."

I shook my head, still seeing the colours of this world fading, draining away like blood down a drain. "Maybe not. They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot, and neon isn't pastel." They all stared. "Synaethesia, guys. The world is pastel, but neon is taking over."

They left it at that, and we went back to the TARDIS, where Rose started to look through a paper as dad made something. I changed shoes and took something to stop my stomach lurching and churning. "According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now don't tell me you're going to sit back and do nothing."

And dad popped up from below the console, wearing a rucksack, and holding something that distinctly looked like a hosepipe that he'd used to fix the shower. When he broke it. "Who you going to call?"

"Ghostbusters!"

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts." He ran back out, starting to put three metal cones out, linked by wires on the grass. "When's the next shift?"

Jackie had returned, not looking happy about our meddling. "Quarter to. But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"

Would she actually understand?"Triangulates their point of origin."

"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose asked, as I welded a few things together. Sonic hands, never without a use.

"Nah. They were just coming through one little rift." Dad replied, doing more things that I didn't actually understand. "This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper."

Jackie was getting angry now. "You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real? Just think of it, though. All the people we've lost. Our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"

Dad and I stared at her. "I think it's horrific. Rose, give us a hand. Jace, stay there, make sure no one steals the cones for a footy goal or something."

I did as he said, rubbing my eyes wearily as I waited, and shivered at the coming of more of the static, the way it was draining this world, taking the very light and power of it. But where was it going? Why were they bleeding this world, trying to come through when they were so, so wrong, so different? I could see the turn of this words and hear, seeing and hearing the music it made as it did, and I knew, deep, deep in my bones that this was wrong, that we didn't fit, these ghosts and us. Like a chunky key for a key card lock.

Dad ran back out, and I activated the cones on his nod, and looked back into the TARDIS where Rose was with her mother. "What's the line doing?"

"It's all right." She called back. "It's holding!"

"Here we go!"

"The scanner's working. It says delta one six." That was fairly normal, but then the ghosts started to appear again, and one got caught in the trap.

Dad grinned at it, holding me close as I shivered again. "Come on then, you beauty!" It started writhing, and I copied, feeling like there were thousands of red hot fire ants crawling over my skin, at the same time as icy water being dropped down my spine. Horrific. "Don't like that much, do you? Who are you? Where are you coming from? Whoa!" It tried to break through the field and I tried to move back, but I was held too tight to move. "That's more like it! Not so friendly now, are you? I said so! Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source. Allons y!"

We ran back in there, and I got us moving, while dad kept nattering to himself, well and truly distracted by his own saying. The TARDIS was the only place I felt safe now, the only place where the colours were still the same, pure and unfaded. "I like that. Allons y. I should say allons y more often. Allons y. Watch out, Jacey Smith, Rose Tyler. Allons y. And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, allons y, Alonso, every time. You're staring at us."

"My mum's still on board."

"If we end up on Mars, I'm going to kill you." Jackie told us as we turned to stare at her, seeing her still sat on the bunk on the wall.

But then we already landed in the location, and we were immediately surrounded by armed troops as dad and I watched on the scanner. "Oh well there goes the advantage of surprise. Still, cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie."

"I'm not looking after my mum."

Uh, she was your responsibility, just like dad was mine. "Well, you brought her."

Jackie didn't like that. "I was kidnapped!"

"Doctor, they've got guns."

"And I haven't, and neither does Jace. Which makes us the better people, don't you think? They can shoot us dead, but the moral high ground is ours."

We then stepped out the TARDIS, and woman ran in on high heels as we raised our hands. "Oh! Oh, how marvellous. Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day."

She started clapping and the soldiers joined in. "Er, thanks. Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor and this is my daughter Jace."

"Oh, I should say. Hurray!" OK, she was annoying me now.

"You, you've heard of us, then?" I asked cautiously, and held my stomach again as I got another wave of the nausea from the thing, the colours in here even more faed, draining away, only up.

The woman nodded, still grinning. "Well of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here. The Doctor, his, well, his 15 year old, but Time travel, and the TARDIS."

They applauded again, and dad looked both flattered and worried. "And you are?"

"Oh, plenty of time for that." She smiled. "But according to the records, you're not one for travelling alone. The Doctor, his daughter and their companion. That's a pattern, isn't it, right? There's no point hiding anything. Not from us. So where is she?"

"Yes. Sorry. Good point. She's just a bit shy, that's all." Dad reached behind us, through only a slightly open door to grab one of the blondes. "But here she is, Rose Tyler." Except it was Jackie. "Hmm. She's not the best I've ever had. Bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A lot of that." Mimed talking. "And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty seven years. But she'll do."

Jackie stared at him. "I'm forty."

Oh, dad, you were dead meat after this. "Deluded. Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad. Anyway, lead on. Allons y. But not too fast. Her ankle's going."

"I'll show you where my ankle's going." She muttered darkly as we started walking.

"It was only a matter of time until you found us, and at last you've made it." Smiley woman told us, opening doors to a massive warehouse area. "I'd like to welcome you, Doctor, Jaclyn. Welcome to Torchwood."

Dad was staring at everything, knowing a lot more than I did, but even I knew that none of this was human. "That's a Jathar Sunglider."

"Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago."

That didn't sound good. "What, did it crash?"

She shook her head. "No, we shot it down. It violated our airspace. Then we stripped it bare. The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax on Christmas Day? That was us. Now, if you'd like to come with me. The Torchwood Institute has a motto. If it's alien, it's ours. Anything that comes from the sky, we strip it down and we use it for the good of the British Empire."

"For the good of the what?" Jackie asked quickly.

"The British Empire."

OK, even Jackie knew this. "There isn't a British Empire."

"Not yet. Ah, excuse me. Now, if you wouldn't mind." A soldier handed the woman a very, very big gun. "Do you recognise this, Doctor?"

To which he did. "That's a particle gun."

She nodded her approval. "Good, isn't it? Took us eight years to get it to work ."

"It's the twenty first century." I told her softly, getting ready to defend us with a sonic pulse if they got violent. "You can't have particle guns."

The woman wasn't really paying much attention. "We must defend our border against the alien. Thank you, Sebastian, isn't it?" He agreed. "Thank you, Sebastian. I think it's very important to know everyone by name. Torchwood is a very modern organisation. People skills. That's what it's all about these days. I'm a people person."

And, of course, dad went off topic. "Have you got anyone called Alonso?"

"No, I don't think so." She frowned for a moment, looking at him. "Is that important?

"No, I suppose not. What was your name?"

"Yvonne. Yvonne Hartman." I then grabbed a black plastic thing with a handle on top, knowing what it was. "Ah, yes. Now, we're rather fond of these. The Magnaclamp. Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowdon. Attach this to an object and it cancels the mass. I could use it to lift two tonnes of weight with a single hand. That's an imperial ton, by the way. Torchwood refuses to go metric." Well.

Jackie smirked a bit, nodding to them. "I could do with that to carry the shopping."

Except Yvonne barely looked at her. "All these devices are for Torchwood's benefit, not the general public's."

"So, what about these ghosts? Static men, I'm calling them, as they hurt me like white noise does."

"Ah yes, the ghosts. They're er what you might call a side effect."

Seriously? "Of what?"

"All in good time, Jace. There is an itinerary, trust me."

And then the TARDIS was driven past on the back of a truck. "Oi! Where are you taking that?"

Yvonne looked at us like we were idiots for a moment. "If it's alien, it's ours."

Oh, this was getting ridiculous. "You'll never get inside it."

"Hmm! Et cetera."

Rose then peeked out of the TARDIS, and we nodded a little to her. She was going to explore while we got the guided tour. "All those times I've been on Earth, I've never heard of you. You never found Jace before."

"But of course not. You're the enemy. You're actually named in the Torchwood Foundation Charter of 1879 as an enemy of the Crown. And your daughter is rather good at keeping hidden, she's slippery." Oh yes, and it was going to stay that way.

"1879." Dad realised. "That was called Torchwood, that house in Scotland."

Yvonne nodded. "That's right. Where you encountered Queen Victoria and the werewolf."

"I think he makes half of it up." Jackie sighed from behind us.

"Her Majesty created the Torchwood Institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great, and fighting the alien horde."

"But if I'm the enemy, does that mean that I'm a prisoner?"

She nodded with a grin. "Oh yes, so is Jace. But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this." We were lead into another room, this one with a large, dark sphere. "What do you make of that?"

It was wrong, it was so, so wrong, and I got lost in watching it, so when I felt dads arms wrap around me, I fought him, throwing him back with a blast of sound waves, before aiming them at the dark sphere, covered in what looked like a form of radiation now, and the colours were avoiding it, like there was nothing there, but suddenly there was nothing, and a blindfold was over my eyes, and my hands behind my back in what felt like lead gloves.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" A man asked as I started to calm again, the vision of the sphere in my head going as I realised I'd just given away my biggest secret to the enemy. "It upsets people because it gives off nothing. It is absent. Your daughter can't see the sound, her synaesthesia is trying to get rid of the absence, and so its making her want to shatter it." Yeah, I still had the itch to do that.

"Well, Doctor?" Yvonne asked, and I could taste her voice, bitter and sour.

Dad knew, holding me so tight that I felt like I could snap. "This is a Void Ship."

"And what is that?"

"Well, it's impossible for starters." He replied, and I didn't want him to let go of me, to just stay here now. "I always thought it was just a theory, but it's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space, travelling through the Void."

The man who told us about my synaesthesia spoke again, sounding even more confused. "And what's the Void?"

Even I knew that, after dad went through and explained it to me. "The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end."

"My, our, people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell. For Jace, it's just empty, and wrong."

"But someone built the sphere. What for? Why go there?"

Dad sighed, trying to think. "To explore? To escape? You could sit inside that thing and eternity would pass you by. The Big Bang, end of the Universe, start of the next, wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of creation."

Yvonne sounded smug now. "You see, we were right. There is something inside it."

"Oh, yes."

"So how do we get in there?"

I growled softly, breaking free of dad, following my nose forward. Metallic. Blood. I knew that smell, I knew it, but without the colours, I couldn't tell. "We don't! We send that thing back into Hell. How did it get here in the first place?"

Yvonne spoke and I turned to look at her, trusting my other senses without the colours. "Well, that's how it all started. The sphere came through into this world, and the ghosts followed in its wake."

"Show us."

I started walking, turning left. "No, Jace." So I backtracked and went right. Either one. They took the blindfold off me when we got to the top floor, but kept on the shackles. They were lucky I couldn't use my voice, or I'd take down the whole city. There was a large, blank white wall at the far end, but I could see the pastel colours of our world, our universe, being slowly sucked into it, and splatters of the bright neon everywhere, but even they were getting pulled in. This was going to rip apart our world and they couldn't see that. "The sphere came through here. A hole in the world. Not active at the moment, but when we fire particle engines at that exact spot, the breech opens up."

"How did you even find it?"

She shrugged a little. "We were getting warning signs for years. A radar black spot. So we built this place, Torchwood Tower. The breech was six hundred foot above sea level. It was on the only way to reach it."

Oh, you were kidding. "You built a skyscraper just to reach a spatial disturbance? How much money have you got?"

"Enough."

"Hold on a minute." Jackie said, looking out of a window. "We're in Canary Wharf. Must be. This building, it's Canary Wharf."

Yvonne shrugged. "Well, that is the public name for it. But to those in the know, it's Torchwood."

Dad was still struggling to understand all of this. "So, you find the breach, probe it, the sphere comes through six hundred feet above London, bam. It leaves a hole in the fabric of reality. And that hole, you think, oh, shall we leave it alone? Shall we back off? Shall we play it safe? Nah, you think let's make it bigger!"

"It's a massive source of energy. If we can harness that power, we need never depend on the Middle East again. Britain will become truly independent." To me that just sounded lonely. "Look, you can see for yourself. Next Ghost Shift's in two minutes."

You had to be kidding me. "Cancel it."

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

"I'm warning you, cancel it."

"Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the Rights of Man. Guess your daughter is just the same."

"Let me show you. Sphere comes through." I walked to a glass wall, prepared for a small amount of vocal sound, but only humming. I couldn't, I couldn't sing. I used it, and the wall cracked. "But when it made the hole, it cracked the world around it. The entire surface of this dimension splintered. And that's how the ghosts get through. That's how they get everywhere. They're bleeding through the fault lines. Walking from their world, across the Void, and into yours, with the human race hoping and wishing and helping them along. But too many ghosts, and" I touched it lightly with the shackles, and it shattered.

She still didn't believe me. "Well, in that case we'll have to be more careful. Positions! Ghost Shift in one minute."

Dad moved me away from the glass, looking daggers at her. "Miss Hartman, I am asking you, please don't do it. Jace has been scared since she stepped out of the TARDIS, and she isn't the type to scare easily."

"We have done this a thousand times."

"Then stop at a thousand!"

Why wouldn't this woman listen, I mean, I knew she was blonde, but so was Rose and I! "We're in control of the ghosts. The levers can open the breach, but equally they can close it."

"Okay." I gave up, walking back into her office, sitting awkwardly on a chair as dad came to stand behind me. Yvonne was really confused now. "Never mind. As you were."

She could tell we were trying to reverse psychology her, but she was letting herself be slowly sucked into it. "What, is that it?"

I shrugged, having trouble with my wrists. My bones were always to fragile, its why I broke so easily. "No, fair enough. Said our bit. Don't mind us. Any chance of a cup of tea?"

A woman from the lever room spoke up. "Ghost Shift in twenty seconds."

"Mmm, can't wait to see it."

"You can't stop us, Doctor, Jace."

Dad made a small face behind me. "No, absolutely not. Pull up a chair, Rose. Come and watch the fireworks."

"Ghost Shift in ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two-"

And then we finally got her to crack. "Stop the shift. I said stop."

"Thank you."

"I suppose it makes sense to get as much intelligence as possible." She agreed softly. "But the programme will recommence, as soon as you've explained everything."

Oh, well we'd better be good at explaining the dangers that outweigh the good, then. "We're glad to be of help."

She looked skeptical though. "And someone clear up this glass. They did warn me, Jace. They said you like to make a mess. Guess that comes from growing up on the streets." Oh, thanks for that. "So these ghosts, whatever they are, did they build the sphere?"

"Must have." Dad sighed. "Aimed it at this dimension like a cannon ball."

"Yvonne? I think you should see this." Her laptop suddenly started speaking, Rajesh from downstairs. "We've got a visitor. We don't know who she is, but funnily enough, she arrived at the same time as the Doctor and Jace."

Yvonne turned her laptop to us, and we saw Rose with the man. "She one of yours?"

Dad shook his head. "Never seen her before in my life."

"Good. Then we can have her shot."

That went well then. "Oh, all right then. It was worth a try. That's, that's Rose Tyler."

Rose waved on the screen. "Sorry. Hello."

"Well, if that's Rose Tyler, who's she?" She asked, pointing to Jackie.

"I'm her mother."

Now Yvonne looked at dad with raised eyebrows. "Oh, you travel with her mother? We thought your daughter was a bit weird."

Jackie didn't like that herself. "He kidnapped me, and she's letting him!" Hey!

"Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don't tell people I travelled through time and space with her mother."

And then she hit him around the back of the head. "Charming."

"I've got a reputation to uphold."

But then the Ghost shift started again. "Excuse me? Everyone? I thought I said stop the ghost shift. Who started the programme? But I ordered you to stop! Who's doing that?" Levers were moving, slowly creeping up. "Right, step away from the monitors, everyone. Gareth, Addy, stop what you're doing, right now. Matt, step away from your desk. That's an order! Stop the levers! Andrew!" They grabbed at them as she kept shouting orders.

"What's she doing?"

"Addy, step away from the desk." Yvonne shouted at the pretty black woman, sat working stoicly. "Listen to me. Step away from the desk."

But no sound was going into her ears, at all. "She can't hear you. They're overriding the system. We're going into Ghost Shift. It's the ear piece. It's controlling them. I've seen this before. Sorry. I'm so sorry." I hummed again, and three of the workers screamed before collapsing.

She stared at me. "What happened? What did you just do?"

This... This was horrible. "They're dead."

"You killed them."

"Oh, someone else did that long before we got here."

Yvonne started asking questions the second Jacks stopped. "What are those ear pieces?" We told her to stop. "But they're standard comms. devices. How does it control them?" Why wasn#t she listening?! "But what are they?" She pulled one off the woman, and a rope of gray matter came with it. "Urgh! Oh, God! It goes inside their brain."

Not the important part right now. "What about the Ghost Shift?"

"Ninety percent there and still running. Can't you stop it?"

Dad and I were talking together now, but I couldn't help. I was still held by the lead shackles over my hands. Soundproof metal. "They're still controlling it. They've hi-jacked the system. It might be a remote transmitter but it's got to be close by. I can trace it. Jackie, stay here!"

He tracked the way with the sonic, the blue spirals lighting the plain white walls. We found an empty floor, and dad paused before walking in. "What's down here?"

"I don't, I don't know." Yvonne admitted, looking a lot less cool, calm and collected. "I think it's building work. It's just renovations."

"You should go back."

But not that freaked. "Think again." We went through. "What is it? What's down here?"

"Ear pieces, ear pods. This world's colliding with another, the colours blending, merging mixing before one is taking over another, both draining away into the Void like paint in a sink, and I think I know which world."

Figures appeared behind plastic curtains, and I backed away quickly, dad holding me tight. "What are they?"

No, no, no, no... "They came through first. The advance guard." The then started ripping through the plastic, stepping through as the soldiers started shooting. "Cybermen!"

They escorted us back to the lever room, and dad slowly worked on my shackles, having trouble because he couldn't use the sonic. "Get away from the machines. Do what they say. Don't fight them!"

But the Cybers killed them anyway, leaving the levers alone as Jackie moved closer to us, handing dad a bobby pin to undo the lock. God my hands were sweaty. "What are they?"

"We are the Cybermen. The Ghost Shift will be increased to one hundred percent." The levers rose even higher.

"Here come the ghosts."

All the static men appeared again, more of the neon bleeding through, but at the same time everything was being sucked slowly towards the blank white wall. "But these Cybermen, what've they got to do with the ghosts?"

Dad glared at her, more scared for us than angry. "Do you never listen? A footprint doesn't look like a boot."

"Achieving full transfer."

"They're Cybermen." I breathed, feeling my stomach lurch again. Oh god... "All of the ghosts are Cybermen. Millions of them, right across the world."

Yvonne put her hand to her mouth in horror. "They're invading the whole planet."

You stupid woman! "It's not an invasion. It's too late for that. It's a victory."

The computers then started tell us that the Sphere was activated. How was this possible? Dad was having the same thought. "But I don't understand. The Cybermen don't have the technology to build a Void Ship. That's way beyond you. How did you create that sphere?"

"The sphere is not ours."

Huh? "What?"

"The sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown."

"Then what's inside it?"

Jackie grabbed my hand and I looked back at her. "Rose is down there."

Yeah, and we were up here. Being slowly drained of everything as the Void sucked the life out of this universe, slowly trying to fill the emptiness inside it. And maybe, just maybe, it would succeed.


	21. Sad Songs

The Doctor:

"What's down there?" Jackie asked me softly as the Cybermen all worked on doing what they were doing, and I held my daughter as she gagged a little. She could see what I knew would happen. The Void sucking everything, slowly but surely, until the world was gone. "She was in that room with the sphere. What's happened to Rose?"

I shook my head, trying hard to think of something, anything to do. "I don't know. I'll find her. I brought you here, I'll get you both out, you and your daughter, and my daughter. Jackie, look at me. Look at me. I promise you. I give you my word."

The Cybermen were talking to Yvonne, the leader of Torchwood not looking overly happy. "You will talk to your central world authority and order global surrender."

"Oh, do some research." She scoffed, not bowing to the pressure. "We haven't got a central world authority."

"You have now. I will speak on all global wavelengths. This broadcast is for human kind." I pit on my specs as he started to, and sighed as I saw the same radiation around my daughter and I. Oh, Calliope... "Cybermen now occupy every landmass on this planet, but you need not fear. Cybermen will remove fear. Cybermen will remove sex and class and colour and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us."

But obviously, panic ensued, and the army and UNIT tried to destroy them, London started to burn. "I ordered surrender.

"They're not taking instructions. Don't you understand?" I asked it, as Jace tried to make a break for the laptop. "You're on every street, you're in their homes, you've got their children, and my child! Of course they're going to fight."

And of course they weren't listening. "Scans detect unknown technology active within Sphere chamber."

"Cybermen will investigate."

"Units ten six five and ten six six will investigate Sphere chamber."

"We obey."

They did, obviously, and then made their ways down there, until they got to where they needed to be. "Units open visual link." Jace sighed as what she'd been doing got wiped, the Cybers view coming up. "Visual contact established."

And my hearts thudded in my chest as I saw what was down there, the nightmares of my childhood, the reason Jace and I were alone in the Universe. "Identify yourselves." The Dalek demanded at the Cybermen.

"You will identify first."

"State your identity."

"You will identify first."

"Identify!"

It was pretty much a brick wall speaking to a kettle. "That answer is incorrect and illogical. You will modify."

Never, ever tell a Dalek what to do. "Daleks do not take orders."

"You have identified as Daleks."

But the Dalek one upped the metal men then. "Outline resembles the inferior species known as Cybermen."

Jackie leaned forward, and Jace flinched, not expecting her before relaxing, leaning into me. She was safe, I had her, she was going to be fine. "Rose and you said about the Daleks. She was terrified of them. What have they done to her, Doctor, Jacey? Is she dead?"

No, no she couldn't be. "Phone."

The elder blonde blinked. "What?"

"Phone!" Jace snapped, grabbing it and then dialling Rose, the Cybers and Daleks still speaking about how they got here. "She's answered. She's alive. Why haven't they killed her?"

"Well, don't complain!" Jackie snapped as I started wondering the same.

"They must need her for something."

Then they brought up something a little weird. "We must protect the Genesis Ark."

OK, what the hell was that when it was at home? "The Genesis Ark?"

"Our species our similar, though your design is inelegant."

I started to look at them through the 3D specs, avoiding looking at my daughter too, knowing that both of us had the same radiation around us. "Daleks have no concept of elegance."

Seriously? "This is obvious. But consider, our technologies are compatible. Cybermen plus Daleks. Together, we could upgrade the Universe."

That would not end well. "You propose an alliance?"

"This is correct."

The Dalek was having none of it. "Request denied."

So the Cybers readies their weapons. "Hostile elements will be deleted." Not that it really mattered, because Daleks were impenetrable, and soon it was Daleks 2, Cybermen 1.

"Open visual link." Cyberleader told his brethren. "Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen."

"This is not war. This is pest control."

"We have five million Cybermen." The Cyber told the Pepperpot. "How many are you?"

"Four."

There was a small amount of smugness in the Cyberman then, if he wasn't completely devoid of emotion. "You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?"

"We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek." It replied with definite smugness. "You are superior in only one respect."

"What is that?"

"You are better at dying. Raise communications barrier" Daleks 3, but the signal to Rose went too, and Jace snarled to herself, thrusting it back at Jackie.

"Lost her."

The Cybermen then started to make plans, the Daleks messing their day up thoroughly. "Quarantine the Sphere chamber. Start emergency upgrading. Begin with these personnel." Yvonne and Jackie.

She stared at the metal man in horror. "No, you can't do this! We surrendered! We surrendered!"

"This one. His increased adrenaline suggests that he has vital Dalek information, and the younger is his descendent, radiating sonic waves."

Jackie reached for me, and I went to help as Jace used her ability to try and get back to Rose, but it didn't work. "Stop them! I don't want to go! You promised me! You gave me your word!!"

Please, please, no! "I demand you leave that woman alone! I won't help you if you hurt her, or my daughter. Jackie, don't fight. I'll think of something."

They were dragged away, and I held my daughter close again as she started shaking, her hands radiating lightly, streams of colour that I smothered with my hand. Her power was still growing, and the fact that she wasn't using her voice didn't help. "You are proof."

"Of what?" She asked the thing, her voice like a dream, not fully there. But the energy in her eyes told me she was.

"That emotions destroy you."

She considered it for a moment. "Yeah, I am." Jace's eyes fixed just behind its shoulder. "Mind you, I quite like hope. Hope's a good emotion. And here it comes."

And then a group of black clad commandos came in, taking out the remaining Cybers, the leader trying to escape out the back, but a blast of sonic blew its head up as a familiar blonde came into the room. Well, sort of familiar. "Jace? Doctor? Good to see you again."

"Jackie, Jake?"

"The Cybermen came through from one world to another, and so did we." The blonde boy smiled, putting his arm around Jackie's shoulders, not in a relationship way, more a brother and sister way. I had a feeling Jackie and Mickey may have tried it out, if the Mickster was here. I put on my specs again as they got to work. "Defend this room. Chrissie, monitor communications. Kill one CyberLeader and they just download into another. Move!"

They ran off, leaving us with just Jackie and Jake. "You can't just, just, just hop from one world to another. You can't." I insisted to them, still incredibly confused by this.

Jackie shrugged, taking something from around her neck. "We just did. With these."

A large yellow medallion she threw to her double. "But that's impossible. You can't have this sort of technology. It would make you just as sick as it makes me."

"Jace, it takes some getting used to, Miss Pastel v Miss Neon, but it works. We've got our own version of Torchwood. They developed it. Do you want to come and see?"

Jake pressed his button, and we all vanished through to the parallel Torchwood as I cried out at them to stop. "Parallel Earth, parallel Torchwood. Except we found out what the Institute was doing and the People's Republic took control."

This was not happening. "We've got to get back. Rose is in danger, and her mother. Jace could be the only one that could stop it."

"That'd be Jackie." We looked to see Pete Tyler walking towards us. "My wife in a parallel universe. And as for you, Doctor, Jace, at least this time I know who you are."

"Right, yes, fine, hooray. But we've got to get back, right now." Jace snapped, still shaking, even more with the travel, but she was getting use to it now. Maybe that was a good thing.

But Jackie shook her head. "No, you're not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And you're going to listen for once. When you left this world, you warned us there'd be more Cybermen. So we sealed them inside the factories."

"Except people argued." Jake said after. "Said they were living. We should help them."

Pete started after that. "And the debate went on. But all that time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood, mapped themselves onto your world, and then vanished."

Jace frowned a little. "When was this?"

"Three years ago."

"It's taken them three years to cross the void, but we can pop to and fro in a second. Must be the sheer mass of five million Cybermen crossing all at once." I breathed, working it out in a moment, as Jace did the same. I just liked showing off.

Jackie nodded, playing with a necklace she had on. "Yeah, Mickey said you'd rattle off that sort of stuff. Said it was what charmed Rose." Ah, so he was still smitten on Rose, and she wanted to be with him, it just didn't work like that.

But that was a good point. "Oh, where is the Mickey boy?"

"He went ahead first." Pete said, putting a hand on the other girls shoulder, a slight comfort, but she didn't seem to like it. "Any chance to go and find Miss Rose Tyler."

Jace raised a small eyebrow. "She's your daughter. You do know that? Did Mickey explain?"

"She's not mine. She's the child of a dead man. Look at it, a world of peace. They're calling this The Golden Age."

"Who's the President now?"

"A woman called Harriet Jones."

Don't let her have access to a weapon. "Oof. I'd keep an eye on her."

Pete nodded. "But it's a lie. Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They're saying all this is going to be flooded. That's not just global warming, is it?" We both shook our heads. "It's the breach."

"We've been trying to tell you. Travel between parallel worlds is impossible. Then the Daleks break down the walls with a Sphere." Jace was off now, all the words she'd been holding back coming out as she stopped biting her tongue. "Then the Cybermen travelled across, then you lot. Those discs. Every time you jump from one reality to another, you rip a hole in the universe. This planet is starting to boil. Keep going and both worlds will fall into the Void, the colours draining and draining like paint down a drain until there is nothing left!"

They just looked at the pair of us. "But you can stop it? The famous Doctor and his daughter. You can seal the breach? You're Jackie with training, like you said. You can see the sounds of that world."

Ohoh, no, no way, not happening. "Leaving five million Cybermen stranded on my Earth."

"That's your problem." He shrugged. "I'm protecting this world, and this world only."

"Hmm. Pete Tyler. I knew you when you were dead. Now here you are, fighting the fight alone, with the wrong blonde as a sort of daughter. There is a chance, back on my world, Jackie Tyler might still be alive." I told him, holding my daughters hand tight.

Pete wasn't happy though. "My wife died."

"Her husband died." Jace smiled a little. "Good match."

Still wasn't having any of it. "There's more important things at stake. Doctor, Jace, help us."

They had far too much faith in me, if not Jace too. "What, close the breach? Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe we can do that?"

My little girls double nodded, her darker blue eyes hard and serious. "Yes."

"Maybe that's all I need. Off we go, then!" We went back to our world, and Jace shivered a little, as did Jackie as we came back. "First of all, I need to make a phone call. You don't mind?"

"You two, guard to door." Jackie nodded, clicking her fingers through her gothic gloves. Punk Rock Jace.

I dialled Jackie, Tyler Jackie, Jackie T, and she answered her phone on the first ring. She was good at that. "Oh, my God, help me."

Of course, she just started talking. "Jackie, you're alive. Listen."

Not a chance. "They tried to download me but I ran away!"

Jace grabbed the phone, putting it on speaker. "Shush. Listen, tell me. Where are you, Jacks?"

"I don't know. Staircase."

Jackie... "Yeah, which one? Is there any sort of sign? Anything to identify it?"

"Yes, a fire extinguisher." For Gods sake...

"Yeah, that helps"

And then she actually found something useful. "Oh, wait a minute. It says N3."

Jace bowed her head a little, thinking quickly. "North corner, staircase three. Just keep low, we're trying our best."

"No, don't leave me."

You're fine, you'll be fine, you have to be... "I've got to go. I'm sorry." I put down the phone down and looked back at Pete and Little Jackie. "Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler."

He shrugged. "She's not my wife."

Jace smirked a little. "We were at the wedding. You got her name wrong. Now then, Jakey boy, Twinsie, if I can open up the bonding chamber on this thing, it'll work on polycarbite." She started working on the gun, and Jackie came over to help, undoing the side.

"What's polycarbite?"

I smiled, doing the same with Jakes. "Skin of a Dalek."

DW

Waving a piece of A4 paper on a pointed, I stepped out from the corner with Jace, who had one of her own. "Sorry. No white flag. We only had a sheet of A4. Same difference."

"Do you surrender?" The Cybers asked us, squaring off to us.

Jace nodded. "We surrender unto you. A very good idea."

And then we broke into the Sphere room after telling them that brilliant idea, just as they were about to kill Rose. "Oh now, hold on, wait a minute. You want to kill the Bad Wolf, and the Girl of Colours, and the Doctor's daughter, then you're looking at the wrong person. That's his girlfriend." Jace smiled, her eyes twinkling darkly.

"Alert, alert. You are the Doctor and an unknown Time Lord."

"Sensors report they are unarmed."

When was Jace ever not packing a sound wave in her vocal cords? "That's us. Always."

"Then you are powerless."

Never, not a chance when there was people in danger, people relying on me. "Not us. Never. How are you?" I asked Rose, as Jace hugged Mickey.

She grinned back, looking a little wary of the Dalek's. "Oh, same old, you know."

"Good." I smiled, moving onto the second Smith in the TARDIS as Jace let him breathe. "And Mickity McMickey. Nice to see you!"

"And you, boss, glad you looked after this one."

And then the Daleks got frustrated. "Social interaction will cease!" Oh, you sounded just like an evil PE teacher.

"How did you survive the Time War?"

"By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the fall of Arcadia. Someday I might even come to terms with that, the loses that only Jace saved me from." I took her hand, squeezing it tight. "But you lot ran away!"

"We had to survive."

I raised an eyebrow, and Jace started slowly moving up sonic waves in the room, testing things out. "The last four Daleks in existence. So what's so special about you?"

Rose moved forwards a little. "Doctor, Jacey, they've got names. I mean, Daleks don't have names, do they?" Oh, a very special four do. "One of them said they-"

They went through their names, all 4, and I listened, knowing them like primary children knew the 6 wifes of Henry the 8th. Thay, Sek, Jast and Ca'an. The Myth. "So that's it! At last. The Cult of Skaro. I thought you were just a legend."

"Who are they? Dad?" Jace asked, looking from me to them.

"A secret order above and beyond the Emperor himself." That she ripped apart, using that 15 year old fear of losing her father. "Their job was to imagine, think as the enemy thinks. Even dared to have names. All to find new ways of killing."

Mickey spoke up now, rather badass since we left him 3 years ago. "But that thing, they said it was yours. I mean, Time Lords. They built it. What does it do?"

It was my son who built those things, I didn't have a clue. "I don't know. Never seen it before."

"But it's Time Lord."

"Both sides had secrets." Rather like the moment, still somewhere in the heart of the TARDIS, slowly ticking over. "What is it? What have you done?"

One of the Daleks moved forward. "Time Lord science will restore Dalek supremacy."

Jacey frowned a little. "What does that mean? What sort of Time Lord science? What do you mean?"

"They said one touch from a time traveller will wake it up." Rose said softly, making us both look at her.

The irony in that though. "Technology using the one thing a Dalek can't do. Touch. Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything ever, from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream."

"The Doctor or his daughter will open the Ark!"

We both giggled sarcastically, moving away. "The Doctor and his daughter will not."

They were having none of this. "You have no way of resisting."

"Well, you got me there." Jace nodded. "Although there is always these." She held up her hands.

"Human extremities?"

That made her annoyed. "They're hands, dear, not breasts."

But they didn't take her seriously. "They are harmless."

"Oh, yes. Harmless is just the word. That's why we like it. Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim."

Jace grinned then. "But I'll tell you what you don't know about me. There's a reason they call me the Girl of Colours." And then she aimed her hand at the door, streams of sonic colours blazing out as it came through, Jake, Jackie and a Cyberman shooting at them.

And then we made a break for the door, and I dragged my daughter out as they all came after, Pete pulling out Rose, and I closed the blast door as Micks came out last. "Jake, Jackie check the stairwell. The rest of you, come on."

But there was a slight dilemma, because Mickey had activated the Genesis Arc. "I just fell, I didn't mean it!"

"Mickey, without us, they'd have opened it by force." I told him, kissing his forehead. "To do that, they'd have blown up the sun. You've done us a favour. Now, run!"

We kept running, and found Jackie and Pete talking it out, Jacks incredibly confused as she stared at him, wanting to both cry and scream. "It's Pete from a different universe. There are parallel worlds, Jackie." I explained, my arm around Jace's shoulder. "Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence, a different dimension where-"

She sent me a death glare. "Oh, you can shut up. Oh, you look old."

"You don't."

"How can you be standing there?"

Pete shrugged a little. "I just got lucky. Lived my life. You were left on your own. You didn't marry again, or-"

The woman shook her head a little. "There was never anyone else. Twenty years, though. Look at me. I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself."

"You brought her up. Rose Tyler. Then you started to be there for Jace, like I was there for other Jace in my world. That's not bad." Big Jackie nodded a little. "In my world, it worked. All those daft little plans of mine, they worked. Made me rich."

"I don't care about that." She paused for a moment. "How rich?"

"Very."

"I don't care about that. How very?" Brilliant, brilliant absolutely brilliant Jackie.

Pete shook his head slightly. "Thing is though, Jacks, you're not my wife. I'm sorry, but you're not. I mean, we both. You know, it's just sort of. Oh, come here." They gave up and just ran at each other, hugging close. Perfect.

We went to the Warehouse again, and I quickly crawled through to a crate, grabbing the magnaclamps before dodging laser to get back. Then when I was there, I looked back at the fight with my 3D glasses, just as the black Dalek opened the roof shutters, taking the Arc outside. "What're they doing? Why do they need to get outside?? Time Lord science. What Time Lord science? What is it?" Jace was muttering, biting through her nail as she watched them.

I grabbed her hand, going back into the corridor and towards the stairs. "We've got to see what it's doing. We've got to go back up. Come on! All of you. top floor!"

"That's forty five floors up!" Jackie cried. "Believe me, I've done them all."

"We could always take the lift." Jackie and Jake called from the elevator. Perfect.

The Daleks were up at that level, and i could see the Arc shooting Daleks in all directions as it span around. "Time Lord science. It's bigger on the inside." I muttered, as Jace nodded, and it was at times like these I really wished that she was human, that she had stayed on Earth, because she deserved so much better.

"Did the Time Lords put those Daleks in there?" Mickey asked, frowning. "What for?"

How could they not tell? "It's a prison ship."

"How many Daleks?"

"Millions."

And the Cybermen were just not enough for them. trying to shoot them out of the sky, but they were dying so much more. "I'm sorry, but you've had it. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home." Pete took another yellow medallion from a commado, handing it to his wife. "Jacks, take this. You're coming with us."

She stared at him. "But they're destroying the city."

"I'd forgotten you could argue." He smiled a little. "It's not just London, it's the whole world. But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?"

I turned to face them, wearing my 3D specs again, grinning. "Oh, I'm ready. I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood." Then working on a computer, I got to work explaining. "Slam it down and close off both universes."

Jace was staring at me. "But we can't just leave, dad. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?"

"They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution. Oh yes! Well? Isn't anyone going to ask what is it with the glasses?"

I think Jace knew, so Rose was the one who asked. "What is it with the glasses?"

Oho, yes! "I can see, that's what. because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look." I handed them to Rose. "I've been through it. Do you see?"

"What is it? Jace, can you see it too?"

My daughter nodded. "Void stuff. I've been seeing it all day."

Rose clicked her finger, turning to look at me. "Like er, background radiation."

I nodded. "That's it. Look at the others. And the only one who hasn't been through the Void, your mother. First time she's looked normal all in her life."

"Oi."

"But the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside."

That made her laugh with me, though she didn't know what the rest of the plan was, and it would break my hearts. But they'd be safe. "Pulling them all in!"

"Pulling them all in!"

And now Mickey interjected. "Sorry, what's the Void?"

"The dead space." Jace whispered, looking away. "Some people call it Hell. Colourless and dead."

He seemed impressed. "So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell. Man, I told you he was good." Jackie, little Jackie, didn't seem impressed yet. Too used to being on the streets still.

Jace turned back to look at me, her eyes bright and angry, but still upset. "But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in. You've known this the whole time."

"That's why you've got to go." i didn't look up from the computer now, knowing I'd chicken out, and not save my daughter. But she'd be safer there, I knew she would be. "Back to Jackie's and Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Jackie's and Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."

"And then you close it, for good?"

I nodded at the man. "The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput."

Jace was looking right at me, trying to get me to catch her eye. "But you stay on this side?"

"But you'll get pulled in."

"That's why I got these." I held up the magnaclamps. "I'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life."

My little girl was still staring at me. "I'm supposed to go." I nodded at her. "To another world, and then it gets sealed off." And again. "Forever. That's not going to happen."

But then the building started shaking and Pete took charge, putting one around Rose's neck as she was staring at me. "We haven't got time to argue. The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us."

"No, I'm not leaving here."

Rose shook her head now. "I'm not going without her. Not a chance."

"Oh, my God. We're going!"

"No, I'm not. I have no one, no one else like me, because there can't be. But then I met the Doctor, my dad, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, Jacks, Rose. But not anymore, because now he's got me, and we're not alone anymore."

Jace... My little girl, the little girl that saved me from myself... But she wasn't a little girl anymore, and she had so many people she could be with. So much she could for herself, she didn't need me, so I put the medallion around her neck, and Pete took both Rose and Jace with them. She was gone...

For all of about 5 minutes before she came back. Alone. "Once the breach collapses, that's it. You will never be able to see her again. Your best friend!"

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never going to leave you, not like people leave me, dad. So what can I do to help?"

It was obvious that she wasn't going to change her mind. "Those coordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up."

She took off the medallion, and started to use her ability to do what I said, and looked at me a minute later. "We've got Cybermen on the way up."

"How many floors down?"

"Just one."

But there was something stopping them from getting here, and then the computer started speaking. "Levers operational."

"That's more like it." Jace smiled as I did. "Bit of a smile. The old team."

I gave her one of the magnaclamps and she put it on the opposite wall to me by the levers. "Press the red button. When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?"

Her gaze was fixed on the window, Daleks visible outside. "So are they."

"Let's do it!" We pushed them up and grabbed the clamps as the light came out of the breach, and we started being sucked towards it, the Daleks going first. "The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!"

Next the Cybermen, and the more and more Daleks as they came in through the one broken window.

"Offline." Jace's lever started to fall, and the suction decreased, so she let go of her clamp to grab it and try to pull it up.

"I've got to get it upright!" And somehow she managed it, and the suction built up even more, and she started to be dragged horizontally towards it as I shouted for her to hold on, desperately trying to reach for her but she slipped, streams of colours being dragged with her towards the breach as she screamed, until Mickey and Little Jackie appeared, vanishing with her, and the void closed, like paper down a plughole.

"Systems closed."

I slowly walked back towards the wall, leaning against it softly, knowing that my daughter was safe, just wishing that I could have saved her, kept her with me. Jaclyn Calliope Allison Smith, gone in the flurry of colours she came into the world on. I couldn't stop, if I stopped her ghost would catch up, the memories of her voice, her laughter, her music, they would all find me.

But I had one last thing I could do, and I managed to get through to her, burning through a sun to see her one last time, my amazing daughter. "Where are you?" She asked me, and I could see Rose with her mum further away, letting her have this. I loved her, but Jace... she was everything.

"Inside the TARDIS. There's one tiny little gap in the Universe left, just about to close, and it takes a lot of power to send this projection. I'm in orbit around a super nova. I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye, and to say happy birthday."

She sniffed, looking ill as she wiped her eyes. "You look like a ghost."

"Hold on" I used the sonic on myself, hoping that worked.

Jacey reached forward. "Can I-"

I shook my head. "I'm still just an image. No touch."

"Can't you come through properly?"

"The whole thing would fracture." I sighed. "Two universes would collapse. The colours would burn."

But that really didn't matter to her right now. "So?"

Oh, my little girl... "Where are we? Where did the gap come out?"

"We're in Norway."

Wow, somewhere I'd never actually been before. "Norway. Right."

"About fifty miles out of Burgen." Jace went on, hugging her arms around herself. "It's called 'Fargerik Dårlig Ulv Stranden'."

Wait what? "Dalek?"

That made her smile, just a little. "Dårlig. It's Norwegian for bad. This translates as Colourful Bad Wolf Bay." Oh, the irony in that. "How long have we got?"

Not long enough. "About two minutes."

"I can't think of what to say! You're my dad, and I was never going to lose you, but now we're so far apart..."

"Jacey Smith, Defender of the Earth. You're dead, officially, back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing. You're on a list of the dead, just like when we first met . Here you are, living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have. That I could never have let you have, love."

She sobbed a little, her eyes going nearly clear as tears streamed down her face. "Am I ever going to see you again?"

"You can't."

"What're you going to do?"

"Oh, I've got the TARDIS . Same old life, last of the Time Lords. There's two here, you and Jackie. Twin sisters, you're not alone." At least she had someone.

Jacey wiped her eyes, her hands shaking so bad. She was wearing thick leather gloves. "On your own. I, I love you, dad. i miss you. So much..."

"Quite right, too. I love you too. Sing, Jace. You need to. The last time I'll ever be able to hear it." I whispered, tears streaming down my own cheeks. My third child, ripped away from me too..

She shook her head. "I can't, it's gone. Reinette... My voice died with her."

"your voice is a gift. Listen to the music around you, the colours of the water. The sky. Let them guide you."

And then she opened her mouth, and she started to sing, the purity and beauty in her voice making Rose and Jackie break down into tears as then faded away.

The last thing I did for her was to give her back her voice. I just wish it wasn't such a sad song she sang. My little Street Girl, all grown up.


	22. Change

Jace :

4 years. Time hadn't been kind to me, not even with my voice back, because I was cut off from the TARDIS. Dad had stopped the Time Withdrawal from killing me after my 30 years with Reinette, but I still felt it.

But now, now I was back.

I'd told Rose to stay behind, because this wasn't her fight. Her and Jackie had been arguing about even letting me go, but I needed to.

So I telephoned in, hefting my gun as I looked at the night sky, though the colours, the soft, beautiful pastel colours told me that it was only 8 in the morning. Oh god... I'd missed this place, so, so much... My home and I was finally back.

"Right, now we're in trouble." I muttered, brushing my hair out of the way with the added bonus of my undercut before powering up my gun. "It's only just beginning."

Because instead of the distant stars I spent years learning the names of, I could see planets, with a much closer proximity.

So I started walking, through the town that was once my home, the streets my playground as I hid and ran everyday until the Doctor found me. And of course, with the panic of being somewhere new, the skies and heavens somewhere different to the norm.

"The end of the world, darling." A man drunkenly smiled at me, and the colours of his voice made me shiver. Whiskey... "End of the stinking world."

I didn't even look at him, looking for the familiar TARDIS blue waves of his voice amongst the chaos and carnage. "Have one on me, mate. " Then another alarm was added, completely distracting me from my job, so I went over to see two lads nicking tvs and laptops. "Right, you two. You can put that stuff down or run for your lives." They both looked at me, not taking me seriously. "Fine. Have it your way." I sent a charge of sonic into them, and they sparked violently with small black flames and they pegged it. "Thank you, now I can track my dad."

So I sat at a screen showing the red blobs approaching Earth. And then they hit, so I had to keep moving, finding a familiar older man and woman, one with a paint gun. Where they then shot at a Dalek. Rookie mistake, they have laser vision. But I saved them, knowing exactly who they were, so shot a beam of high frequency to boil the Kaled inside and make the head explode. My gun didn't actually work, though Rose's, Mickeys and Jackies did. My twin had moved to France, running Torchwood there.

"You're Donna Noble's family, right?" I asked them, desperate to know if they were. "I'm Callie Smith, and I need you."

They took me back to theirs, and Wilf showed me his phone, how many times he'd called his granddaughter. "Yeah, I've tried calling her, but I can't get through. But she's still with the Doctor, your dad, I know that much, and the last time she phoned, it was from a planet called Midnight, made of diamonds." Ah, he promised to take me there...

"What the hell are you two on about?"

"Look, she's out there, sweetheart. Your daughter." He told his own daughter, who was really skeptical of all this. "She's travelling the stars with that Doctor. She always has been."

Sylvia scoffed, shaking her head. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Oh, come on, open your eyes. Look at the sky. Look at, look at the Daleks. You can't start denying things now."

Please, please, I came all this way... All this was to see him, to help him save the universe... "You're my last hope. If we can't find Donna, can't find my dad. Where is he? Dad..."

We sat there for a while, and heard the Daleks transmitting through everything under the sun, until someone hacked the signal. "Can anyone hear me? The Subwave Network is open. You should be able to hear my voice Is there anyone there?"

A static ridden image came onto the laptop screen, and I moved right over to it, recognising that voice from 50 years previous, before Reinette, before I got stuck. "I know that voice."

"Can anyone hear me?" She called again. "This message is of the utmost importance. We haven't much time. Can anyone hear me?" There was a pause then, another image breaking through. "Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you. Now stand to attention, sir." Yes! Uncle Jack, yes, yes!

His image came into view, but they couldn't see me."What? Who is that?"

Harriet held up her ID, as usual. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister." Because dad and I deposed you.

"Yeah, I know who you are."

"Harriet, it's me. It's me, Jacey, well, it's Callie now." They really couldn't hear me. "Oh, she can't hear me. Have you got a webcam?"

Wilf shook his head, pointing to his daughter. "No, she wouldn't let me. She said they're naughty." Oh, that was brilliant.

"I can't speak to her then, can I?" Which sucked.

But she was still calling out to people, so maybe she had a way to get through to me. "Sarah Jane Smith, 13 Bannerman Road.Are you there?"

They she came through, and it was amazing to see her again. And there was a boy with her, about 14 years old. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. That, that's me".

"Good. Now let's see if we can talk to each other." The screen split up a little. "The fourth contact seems to be having some trouble getting through."

Yes, yes! Come on, get through to me, please, please! "That's me. Harriet, that's me."

"I'll just boost the signal."

But someone I didn't know came though, and my hearts fell again, knowing they wouldn't be able to see me. "Hello?"

"Ha, ha! Martha Jones." Uncle Jack laughed, looking ecstatic to see her.

"Who's she?" I asked, rubbing the shorn side of my head, an impulse that I'd kept 2 years in. Helped keep my curls out of the way, and stopped people getting Little Jackie and I mixed up when she was there. "I want to get through. He's my dad!"

"Martha, where are you?."

Martha smiled broadly, and I could see why dad picked her up. She was gorgeous. "I guess Project Indigo was more clever than we thought. One second I was in Manhattan, next second. Maybe Indigo tapped into my mind, because I ended up in the one place that I wanted to be."

Then another woman, her mum by the same voice pattern, came up behind her with a mug of tea. "You came home. At the end of the world, you came back to me."

"But then all of a sudden, it's like the laptop turned itself on."

"It did.That was me." Harriet told them, taking out her iD again. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."

Martha looked at her a little warily. "Yes, I know who you are." There wasn't anyone who didn't know Harrie by this point.

"I thought it was about time we all met,given the current crisis. Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith."

Uncle Jack nodded a little. "I've been following your work. Nice job with the Slitheen."

"Yeah, well, I've been staying away from you lot. Too many guns." She nodded towards her boy, who was just looking at them like I was. Like we were memorising. Hmm...

"All the same, might I say looking good, ma'am?"

This surprised her, strange as she was actually gorgeous. "Really? Ooo."

But Harrie didn't think there was time for flirting. "Not now, Captain. And Martha Jones. "Former companion to the Doctor."

"Oi. So was I. And I'm his kid!" Though I was 50, and not really a kid.

Martha was still a little confused. "But how did you find me?"

"This, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Subwave Network.A sentient piece of software programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who can help to contact the Doctor."

"What if the Daleks can hear us?" Good question, because I was not in the mood to boil more of them.

But she just grinned. "No, that's the beauty of the Subwave. It's undetectable."

Sarah Jane looked a little skeptical, seeing as she started off as a politician. "And you invented it?"

"I developed it." She admitted. "It was created by the Mister Copper Foundation." Never heard of it.

"Yeah, but what we need right now is a weapon." Uncle Jack pointed out, then his eyes fixed on the window with the pretty woman who replaced Rose and I. "Martha, back there at UNIT, what, what did they give you? What was that key thing?"

Martha held up a small microchip style thing. "The Osterhagen key."

"That key is not to be used, Doctor Jones." Harriet snapped. "Not under any circumstances." Jack wanted to know more, not that Harriet let him. "Forget about the key, and that's an order.All we need is the Doctor."

And the oldest companion on the screen spoke up. "Only, excuse me, Harriet, but. Well, the thing is, if you're looking for the Doctor, didn't he and Jace depose you?"

"They did. And I've wondered about that for a long time, whether I was wrong. But I stand by my actions to this day, because I knew, I knew that one day, the Earth would be in danger, and the Doctor would fail to appear, maybe because he lost Jace, butI told him so myself, and he didn't listen." Hey, I'd be here if not for this stupid lack of webcam.

"But I've been trying to find him. The Doctor's got my phone on the TARDIS, but I can't get through."

Come on, I knew the home phone in the TARDIS, not some poxy mobile. "Nor me, and I was here first."

"That's why we need the Subwave. To bring us all together." Harriet agreed. "Combine forces. The Doctor's secret army."

And then they started drawing up plans, Jack getting them started. "Wait a minute. We boost the signal. That's it. We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself, using all the power of the Rift."

"And we've got Mister Smith." Sarah Janes son realised. "He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth.He can get the whole world to call the same number, all at the same time.Billions of phones, calling out all at once."

Uncle Jack grinned. "Brilliant. Who's the kid?"

"That's my son."

"Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry. Hello. Ianto Jones." One of Jacks Torchwood people. Good Torchwood, being run by him, similar to our one. "Er, if we start transmitting, then this Subwave Network is going to become visible. I mean, to the Daleks."

Harriet nodded. "Yes, and they'll trace it back to me. But my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."

Jack saluted her. "Ma'am."

She smiled a little, but kept her cool. "Thank you, Captain.But there are people out there dying on the streets."

"Marvellous woman." Wilf said behind me. "I voted for her."

His daughter shoved him lightly. "You did not."

"Now, enough of words. Let's begin."

They all got to work, Torchwood, using the Rift, plus the National Grid, and Sarah Jane and Luke linked it to the phone networks, just as Martha sent the phone number.

"Opening Subwave Network to maximum."

"Mister Smith, make that call."

Her supercomputer replied in a calm voice. "Calling the Doctor."

Then I got to my feet, taking out my suped up phone, relying on my own gift to power the signals. "So am I." I dialed, boosting it with everything I had. "Find me, dad. Please find me..."

But then the screen burst back into life after Harriets part left, and dad came into view, and I smiled sadly, knowing he was here, but he couldn't see me. "Where the hell have you been?" Jack demanded. "Doctor, it's the Daleks."

"It's the Daleks." Sarah Jane again. "They're taking people to their spaceship."

"It's not just Dalek Caan."

Sylvia came up to me, pointing to her daughter. "It's Donna!"

Wilf laughed too, looking so relieved. "That's my girl."

"Sarah Jane. Who's that boy? That must be Torchwood. Oh, they're brilliant.Look at you all, you clever people.That's Martha."

Donna pointed to Uncle Jack's screen. "And who's he?"

"Captain Jack. Don't. Just don't."

"Dad, it's me." I whispered. "I came back."

Donna was still smiling at all the people here. "It's like an outer space Facebook."

Dad nodded, looking sad himself. "Everyone except my Jacey."

That was when I'd had enough, using my phone to triangulate the co ordinates of where the TARDIS would land when everything went blank. I needed to find him, I needed to get back to my dad. "Control, I need another shift. Lock me onto the TARDIS, now, I've sent the triangulation. Mickey, Rose, don't even think about it." I hung up, and looked back at Sylvia and Wilf. "Right, I'm going to find him. Wish me luck."

"Oh, good luck."

"Yeah, good luck, sweetheart."

Then I left in a flash, before appearing in a dark, abandoned street, cars left in varying positions. I kept walking down, stopping as I saw the man himself, facing the other way until Donna told him to turn around. And then I was running, dropping my false gun as I did, running into his arms as he ran to me.

But then I was in agony as something hit me from behind, and it felt like my entire body was burning, both dad and I hitting the ground hard. "Exterminate."

I saw Jack shoot it, appearing from no where as both him and Donna reached us. Dad wasn't as bad as me, and he was trying to hold himself above me, checking me over. "I've got you. It got you. Look, it's me, Jace. Jace, agh, oh, Jacey..."

"Daddy... Callie... It's Callie, or CJ..." I wheezed, feeling a fierce heat start to beat up inside me. "Dad, it hurts..."

"Don't die. Oh, my God. Don't die. Oh my god, don't die." He begged me, dropping again in pain as Jack started to drag him into the TARDIS, Donna pulling me.

"What, what do we do?. There must be some medicine or something."

Jack shook his head. "Just step back. Donna, do as I say, and get back."

I blacked out after that, but when I woke up, dad was cradling me, and the whole TARDIS was in darkness. "D, D, dad?" Wait... That. That wasn't... That wasn't my voice... "Wh, what? Dad, dad, please... please tell me..."

"It's OK. God, Jacey..." He kissed my temple, holding me so tight I could barely breathe. "You regenerated, I'm sorry, but you're here... Oh, you're here..."

Home, I was home, I was in the TARDIS, still with the same feeling of warmth and compassion. "I feel like I'm supposed to ask if I'm ginger." I giggled a little, looking at dad, seeing his face the same. Wasn't he dying too? Not that I wanted him to. "How do I look?"

"Like Dawn from Buffy." Jack told me, handing me a mirror. I had no clue who she was, but hey. I had long dark brown curls, brighter, clearer blue eyes, and skin like snow. Oh, and I was about 17. Great. "You look amazing."

I did, I loved the hair, and my voice, it was different, but my singing, when I then tried it, much to dad, Donna's, and Uncle Jacks delight, was like Hayley Williams from Paramore. But then we had to get back to business, and I would have to deal with the fact that I was someone new now, just like dad. "There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."

Donna frowned a little, looking at dad. "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"

"Jacey, CJ, whatever your name is now, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"

"It's the darkness. The colours of the universe just fading to nothing. Not moving, just turning slowly to nothing as we just watched."

"The stars were going out."

Nodding, I kept going, hugging my arms around myself. "One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so I could. Well, so I could-"

Dad smiled at me. "What?"

Oh, like you didn't know. "So I could come back, dad." His grin got even bigger as he hugged me again. "Shut up. Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. well, deader. Something is destroying everything."

"In that parallel world, you said something about me."

Oh, everything was around you. "The dimension cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you. Even the colours of the TARDIS, the universe, they all seem to sing like the stars whenever I see you."

She frowned, looking so worried. "But why me? I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick."

But the scanner beeped before anything further could be said. "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard."

"Doctor, you will step forth or die."

"We'll have to go out." He said softly, looking at all of us. "Because if we don't, they'll get in."

Wait, what? Not possible. "You told me nothing could get through those doors.You've got extrapolator shielding."

He shook his head, moving aside my darker, less frizzy curls to look at me properly. "Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDIS's they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood."

"What about your dimension jump?" Uncle Jack asked, turning to me. Man, I missed him, and what I did to him... God, he was wrong, but he was still Jack. Two Jackies, Jaclyn, Jake and Jack. JJ club.

"It needs another twenty minutes, as well as co ordinates. And anyway, I'm not leaving.What about your teleport?"

He sighed sadly. "Went down with the power loss."

"Right then. All of us together. Yeah. Donna?" She was staring at nothing, so we snapped her out of it. "Donna?" The woman finally focussed on us. "I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."

Donna nodded, looking scared, but also like she wasn't going down without a fight. "No, I know."

The Daleks outside the door were getting impatient now, and for some reason I felt like I had to make fun of the situation. "Daleks. Dustbins on wheels, all we need are some stairs." If only. But they all smiled weakly. I was a joker now, that was weird. Normally I was pretty serious.

"Oh, God."

"It's been good, though, hasn't it? All of us. All of it. Everything we did." He looked at Donna. "You were brilliant." Now to Uncle Jack. "And you were brilliant." And lastly to me. "And you were brilliant. And you always will be, my Callie. Blimey."

He lead me out of the TARDIS by the hand, thne Jack, but Donna was lagging behind. The Daleks were everywhere, screaming hatred at us, deep, dark green that made me want to be sick. "Behold, Doctor, Jace. Behold the might of the true Dalek race."

"Donna! You're no safer in there." But then the doors slammed shut, trapping her inside. "What?"

"Doctor? Callie? What have you done?"

Dad rolled his eyes, but tried to get back inside. "It wasn't me. I didn't do anything."

"Oi! Oi, I'm not staying behind!"

I glared at the Daleks, my voice raising, and making the walls shake slightly. "What did you do?! Answer me, you know what I can do!"

But they were still denying it. "This is not of Dalek origin."

"Doctor! Callie!"

"Stop it! She's my friend." Dad cried, running back. "Now open the door and let her out."

The Daleks were having none of it. "This is Time Lord treachery."

Uh, Excuse me? "Us?" I demanded, my anger building. "The door just closed on its own. Now let her out!"

"Nevertheless, the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed."

And then a trapdoor opened underneath the blue box, and it dropped through. "What are you doing? Bring it back!What have you done? Where's it going?"

"The Crucible has a heart of Z-neutrino energy." This was not happening... "The TARDIS will be deposited into the core."

No! "You can't. You've taken the defences down. It'll be torn apart!" Dad and I cried, and my terror over the fact I was someone new left as I realised my home was about to be taken from me once more.

"But Donna's still in there!"

Uncle Jack moved forward too, taking my hand. "Let her go!"

Daleks, heartless bitches, kinda like Donald Trump. Except even they weren't that judgemental. "The female and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe. The last children of Gallifrey is powerless."

An image appeared in the middle of the screen, and we saw it in the core. I could feel my inside burning again, that link dad and I had with her meaning we could feel her screaming in pain. "Please. I'm begging you. I'll do anything! Put me in her place." Dad was shouting, and I pulled on the cord, trying to do something to help, to control her psychically from here. "You can do anything to me, I don't care, just get her out of there!"

"You are both connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die.Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven, six" Something happened, ever so slightly, but it must have been too late because then it was gone. "Five, four, three, two, one." She was gone... "The TARDIS has been destroyed. Now tell me, Doctor, Seer. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"

We both nodded, knowing it was just us now. "Yeah."

The Daleks were still taunting us. "Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?"

"Yeah? Feel this!" Jack pulled out a small revolver, and shot at the Dalek, but they just zapped him easily. Immortality, gotta love it.

The lead Dalek was talking, not that we really cared. "Escort them to the vault. They are the playthings of Davros now." I winked at Jack, and he winked back. I had nothing if not a normal family.

The walk was short, and we were in almost darkness as we were pushed inside, though I was kept 1 meter away from dad. "Activate the holding cells." Spotlights shone down on us. "Excellent. Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained."

"Still scared of me, then?" Dad asked, reaching out to put a hand on the forcefield, as I did, pressing a high frequency to shatter it, but it shocked me. "Even more scared of my daughter by the look of that. High frequency electricity field. She sings or uses her hands, she gets zapped. Non lethal though."

The man, well, weird ass creature, moved forwards in a wheelchair. "It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long."

Not that dad wanted to listen to him, he was too busy working out why supreme said Vault. "No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?"

"We have an arrangement."

Dad grinned even more, getting a little full of himself. "No, no, no, no, no. No, I've got the word. You're the Dalek's pet!"

"So very full of fire, is he not." Davros smiled, moving towards me. "And to think you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find him again. Your father, who let you die only minutes into finding him once more."

"Leave her alone. She can bring this place down, and she won't hesitate, even with the electricity." He was right there. 4 years, my pain tolerance was high, even higher after that regeneration.

Davros turned to dad, his smile getting bigger. "She is mine to do as I please."

Please, I was my own woman. "Then why am I still alive? Because I've died once today, I think I've reached my quota." Oh, I was definitely like my dad right now, and it was hilarious. Why was everything suddenly funny in some small way?

"You must be here. It was foretold. The Girl of Colours to watch as the colours faded. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan."

We looked over as a light came up, seeing a disgusting creature writhing inside. "So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames."

I knew that voice, those colours, but didn't know what it was. "What is that thing?"

"You've met before." Dad told me softly, his eyes not leaving it. "The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War, unprotected."

"Caan did more than that. He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. Both of you."

It started speaking again, insane and mad. "This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor and his beloved daughter will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die."

That made dad start shouting, getting so, so angry that I flinched at the tones, rarely seeing him like that. "Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna? Why did the TARDIS door close? Tell me!"

Davros smiled again. "Oh, that's it. The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is. Why so shy? Show your child. Show her your true self, the rage she may inherit. Dalek Caan has promised me that too."

"I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed."

And now we were both confused again. "What does that mean?"

"We will discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins."

OK, now this was just getting annoying. "Testing of what?"

He looked at us like we were idiots. "The Reality bomb." Oh, perfect. "Behold. The apotheosis of my genius." Manky guy turned on a screen, showing some type of holding area, and we watched as the people started to be ripped apart.

And dad knew how it was being done. "That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string. No, Davros. Davros, you can't! You can't! No!"

"Dad, what happened?"

"Electrical energy, Calliope. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter. Very much similar to your own ability, to use sound to break down the atoms holding things together."

No, oh God, no... "The stars are going out."

"The twenty seven planets." Dad agreed, and looked at me as I ran my hands through my newly dark hair, feeling it silkily go right through my fingers, falling in loose curls. So much better than my old hair, constantly tangled, but I did miss the undercut. "They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength."

Davros nodded. "Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!"

And then something started playing, and I saw the same woman from before, Martha. "This message is for the Dalek Crucible. Repeat. Can you hear me?"

Dad looked at Davros. "Put me through."

"It begins As Dalek Caan foretold."

"The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die." The creature giggled, and I glared at him.

"Stop saying that. Put us through!"

And then Martha was able to talk to us, seeing dad. "Doctor! I'm sorry, I had to."

Davros smiled at her, wrinkled and old. "Oh, but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner. State your intent."

"I've got the Osterhagen Key." Would be good if we knew what that was. "Leave this planet and its people alone or I'll use it."

And now dad was definitely confused as I worked on finding the right frequency to get through this forcefield. "Osterhagen what? What's an Osterhagen Key?"

"There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart." Oh good, perfect, just what we needed.

Dad stared at her. "What? Who invented that? Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?"

She was definitely into what she was doing. "The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option."

"That's never an option."

"Don't argue with me, Doctor!" Martha snapped. "Because it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty seven planets for something. But what if it becomes twenty six?What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"

Actually, overall, that wasn't a half bad plan. "She's good."

Martha frowned as she look at me for the first time. "Who's that?

Oh, yeah, no one would recognise me. "My name's Calliope. Calliope Jace Smith.

"Oh, my God. He found you. His little girl."

And then there was a second screen next to hers, and I saw Sarah Jane, Mickey, Rose, and Jackie. My old sister. "Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls.Are you receiving me?Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off."

They had two Sonic Girls here, and this was awesome. "Oh, my god. That, that's my twin sister, well, sister now."

"And Mickey. And Rose." Dad agreed, looking at the blonde who had been adamant about coming with me. So I left before she realised. "Captain, what are you doing?"

Uncle Jack smiled a little. "I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe.I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up."

Oh, brilliant. High explosives, and a black hole in the making, what could go well? "You can't! Where did you get a Warp Star?"

"From me." Sarah Jane stepped forwards, and Davros stared at her. "We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners."

"Impossible. That face. "After all these years."

And now Sarah Jane looked back at him, amazing and cool in her dauntless. "Davros. It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?"

"Oh, this is meant to be. The circle of Time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation."

She nodded a little. "And I've learnt how to fight since then. You let the Doctor and Jace go, or this Warp Star, it gets opened."

Jack held it up, Jackie placing her hand under it. "We'll do it.Don't imagine we wouldn't. This girl really wants to save her sister."

This was finally working. "Now that's what I call a ransom." Not that dad agreed, staring at all of his old companions. Just like Davros said. "Dad?"

"And the prophecy unfolds."

"The Doctor's soul is revealed. See him. See the heart of him."

"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun.But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons.Behold your Children of Time, even the daughter you love. "Transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

He shook his head. "They're trying to help."

Davros kept smiling at him, while I got socked for the third time. I hated electricity. "Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."

"Who was that?"

"Harriet Jones." I told him softly, shivering as I stopped being electrocuted. "She gave her life to get you here."

But he wouldn't leave it alone, kept pushing at dad. "How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name?" I wanted to reach out and help dad, but I couldn't, so I had to watch him in pain. "The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself, in front of your daughter."

"It's the Crucible or the Earth." But then Martha, Jack, Rose, Mickey, Jackie and Sarah Jane all got teleported to us.

"Don't move, all of you. Stay still." I shouted at them, wincing as I got shocked again, my forcefield lighting up.

Davros smiled, but was wary all the same. "Guard them! On your knees, all of you. Surrender!"

Please, please, don't hurt Jackie or Rose... "Do as he says."

"Rose, I told you not to. Jackie, when did you even get here?"

"You were just leaving! You never said goodbye, Callie!"

Because it all happened too fast! I didn't know how to say goodbye to her. "The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses." Davros was grinning. "Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"

And then it all started, and dad started to get panicked. "You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!"

"Ah, ha, ha, ha!" Wow, now that was some pretty strange laughing. "Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one!"

Until the TARDIS started to materialise, and I stared at the point it was coming through. "But that's-"

"Impossible."

She finished landing, and another dad appeared in the doorway. "Brilliant." Uncle Jack breathed as he ran across the floor.

"Don't!" Dad cried, but Davros zapped him, and he dropped the gizmo in pain, and dropped a holding cell around him.

Though there was still Donna, who came running out and grabbed it for herself. "Doctor! I've got it. But I don't know what to do!"

Davros zapped her before we could do anything, and she went flying back, the gizmo dropping to the floor. "Donna! Donna!" Dd cried, trying to see her as Davros had the weapon destroyed. "Are you all right, Donna?"

"I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic."

Not exactly the point I wanted to know. "How comes there are two of you, dad?"

He didn't look at me, staring at where Donna had been thrown. "Human biological metacrisis. Never mind that. Now we've got no way of stopping the Reality Bomb."

"Stand witness, Time Lords. Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and. Oh. The end of the universe has come."

"Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

And then an alarm sounded, mauve and bleeping. "Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there." Donna hit a button on the panel she'd been thrown against.

Dad was staring in her in bewilderment. "Donna, you can't even change a plug."

She just grinned back at him. "Do you want to bet, Time Boy?"

"You'll suffer for this." Davros said, but when he tried to zap her again, the electricity hit him instead when she hit another lever. "Argh!"

"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion." Of course, they wanted her exterminated after that, but she worked on a few more controls, and they couldn't do anything. "Phwor. Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix." OK, why had her voice gone from yellow and red, to red and blue, closer to dads?

"How did you work that out? You're-2

My second dad, who was a sort of clone of the first one, grinned at us. "Time Lord. Part Time Lord."

Donna nodded again. "Part human. Oh, yes. That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna."

"The Doctor Donna." Dad breathed. "Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna."

"Holding cells deactivated and the frequency barrier dropped. And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work. Calliope, we could do with some interference." Easy, I quickly ran over, playing one of my playlists from a USB. Well, I couldn't sing and hack, I wasn't a Dwarf.

"Stop them! Get them away from the controls."

Oh, come on! "And spin." I laughed, making them all spin around on the spot. "And the other way." Now anticlockwise.

Dad 2 stared at me. "What did you do?"

"Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator." Donna nodded, knowing right away.

"But that's brilliant!"

Dad frowned a little, putting his arm around my shoulder. "Why did we never think of that?"

"Because you two were just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. Callie and I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for me and her. Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship. Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute."

The was finally working, and we all started hacking, my playlist of Katherine Jenkins style work keeping us going quickly. "Come on then, Smiths. We've got twenty seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron."

"Stop this at once!"

Jack ran back out the TARDIS, and threw a gun to Mickey, holding one of his own, aiming it at Davros. "Just stay where you are, mister."

"Ready? And reverse." Donna asked us, and then we started pulling out pairs of rods, the planets starting to go home.

"Off you go, Clom."

"Back home, Adipose Three."

"Shallacatop" I giggled, tucking my hair behind my ear. Everything was funny, what was going on with this regeneration?!

"Pyrovillia and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Sorted. Ha!"

Then my sister came over, looking just how I used to. I was hot, but I liked this. "Is anyone going to tell us what's going on?"

So Donna leaned forward, and we both smiled. "He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand. I touched the hand, and he grew out of that but that fed back into me. But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you, Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind and his knowledge of Calliope Jace Smith. So her amazing gift."

"So there's three of you?" Sarah Jane asked carefully.

"Three Doctors and two Callies."

Uncle Jack raised an eyebrow. "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." Lovely.

But it all made sense, why everything fell back onto her. "You're so unique the timelines were converging on you. Human being with a Time Lord brain. Not even CJ, mostly Time Lord with that little bit of human."

Davros turned to the weird ass creature of Ca'an. "But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?"

He was too busy giggling to himself. "Oh, I think he did." I said softly. "Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."

" This would always have happened. I only helped, Callie, Doctor."

Davros stared at his creation. "You betrayed the Daleks."

"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed, no more!"

Then big leader Supreme started to come down, and I readied myself with Jack and Micks. "Heads up!"

"Davros, you have betrayed us."

"It was Dalek Caan." And who created him?

"The Vault will be purged. You will all be exterminated."

"Like my Uncle Jack was saying. Feel this!" Then I fried him, the frequency starting a few more fires in the corner of the room, but not before he'd shot the control panel. "Oh, we've lost the magnetron. And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one." Earth, of course. "But we can use the TARDIS."

Dad and I ran in there, working out a way to get everyone home, but when explosions started, we ran back out, staring at the newer Doctor as he stood at the console. "What have you done?"

He looked like he was happy with what he'd done. "Fulfilling the prophecy."

No, no, this was horrible. "Do you know what you've done?" I shouted at him, seeing my sister, Jackie, looking at him in horror. "Now get in the TARDIS! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!In! In! In! In!"

"Davros?" Dad called, looking at him as the Crucible started to fall apart. "Come with us. I promise I can save you."

"Never forget, Doctor, you did this. I name you. Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!" A wall of flames rose up then, and he gurgled his last scream.

"One will still die." Caan whimpered, then went silent himself, as the fire reached him.

I pulled dad back in, starting the TARDIS off as the ship around us exploded. "And off we go."

"But what about the Earth?" Sarah Jane asked, stood there with Jack, Donna, Rose, Mickey, Martha, Jackie and the New Doctor, who was stood protectively over her. "It's stuck in the wrong part of space."

Oh, I'd thought of that. "I'm on it. Torchwood Hub, this is Callie, or Jace if Uncle Jacks mentioned me. Are you receiving me?"

"Loud and clear." A strong Welsh voice said, and the picture came through. "Is Jack there?"

"Can't get rid of him. Uncle Jack, what's her name?"

"Gwen Cooper."

"Gwen Cooper, and Ianto Jones, you worked for Torchwood 1, I saw you.Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up thatRift Manipulator. Send all the power to me."

Ianto nodded, starting to type. "Doing it now, Ma'am." Ma'am? I looked 17!

Donna frowned at me. "What's that for?"

"It's a tow rope. Now then. Sarah Jane, what was your son's name? The one with a similar memory pattern to me."

"Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith."

"Calling Luke and Mister Smith." I called again, getting it up next to Gwen and Ianto. "This is Callie. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg."

He got right to his feet, and I saw that he was a force grown clone, only much better. Infinite memory, so lucky him. "Is Mum there?"

"Oh, she's fine and dandy." And so, so happy her little boy was alive. "Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?"

A computer voice came back through. "I regret I will need remote access to Tardis base code numerals."

Dad made a face. "Oh, blimey, that's going to take a while. That went out with the manual." Great.

"No, no, no. Let me." We let Sarah Jane forward. "K9, out you come!"

And then the dog beamed in next to Luke. "Affirmative, Mistress."

"Oh! Oh ho! Oh, good dog!" We both laughed. "K9, give Mister Smith the base code."

"Master. TARDIS base code now being transferred." He told us. "The process is simple."

And then dad turned to look at the companions we had around us. "Now then, you lot. Sarah, hold that down. Little Jackie, you hold that. Because you know why this TARDIS always is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed. Martha, keep that level. But not any more. Jack, there you go. Steady that. Now we can fly this thing." He looked at Mickey, the big brother I loved to pieces. "No, Mickey. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back. Like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the Tardis by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly Planet Earth back home. Right then. Off we go."

So we started moving, and dad kept his arm around me as we went, and I was so, so happy that we were alive, that I was here, and I didn't have to go anywhere. I could stay with him forever again. The father and daughter combo that saved the universe.

Once the Earth was in the right place, we dropped everyone off, starting with Sarah Jane. "You know, you act like such a lonely man. But look at you. You've got the biggest family on Earth, starting with this amazing girl. Callie, your little girl." She hugged me, and then dad. "Oh! Got to go. He's only "fourteen. It's a long story. And thank you!

Next was Jack, and I grabbed his wrist, singing softly to lock it. "I'm fairly sure dad would have told you, no teleport."

"And, Martha, get rid of that Osterhagen thing, eh?" Dad asked her as she came to stand with him. "Save the world one more time."

"Consider it done." They both saluted at dad, and he begrudgingly did it back as they both walked away hand in hand.

And then Mickey came out. "Oi, where are you going?"

"Well, I'm not stupid. I can work out what happens next." He told me. "And hey, I had a good time in that parallel world, but my gran passed away. Nice and peaceful. She spent her last years living in a mansion, still thinking I had someone for me. There's nothing there for me now, certainly not Rose, and not you."

That made me hug him tight. "What will you do?"

"Anything. Brand new life. Just you watch. See you, boss, see you, Callie. Hey, you two!" He ran after Martha and Jack, and we went back into the TARDIS where Jackie was seeming to actually trust the new Doctor, and Rose was talking in depth to them.

"Just time for one last trip. Fargerik Dårlig Ulv Stranden." I stared at dad, my hearts thudding. "Better known as-"

We materialised onto the beach, and I walked back onto the neon coloured area that I'd felt myself die on 4 years prior. "Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?" Rose asked him, looking back at dad and I.

"You're back home."

"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened." Donna explained. "It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now."

"No, but I spent all that time trying to find you, me and CJ. I'm not going back now."

Dad shook his head. "But you've got to. Because we saved the universe, but at a cost. And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

The new Doctor stared at him. "You made me."

"Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge." He kept explaining, looking first at me, then at Rose. "Remind you of someone? That's me, when we first met. And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."

This wasn't happening. "But he's not you. And I'm not who he needs. He needs Jackie and Rose." I looked at the pair of them. "Jacks, you and him, you right away trusted him, didn't you. Just like I trusted dad when I first met him."

"Callie, you have a dad, I don't. I have no one, except for Jake, and he's got a family now." She told me, her eyes dull. "I had you, but you were far too busy trying to get back to your dad."

Oh, Jackie... "You deserve a dad. You never had one, and now? Now with Rose and him, you could have a proper family. You're still just human, more human than me. You have one heart, and so do they. Stop hating the world, sis. Try loving it." Now I looked at Rose. "Rosie, God, you were my best friend..."

"CJ, I'm not leaving you. What about mum, and dad? They looked after you."

"Because they had to. Tell them I'm so, so grateful for that, but now, you have a family here, Tony, Jackie and Pete. Now, you can have him, your own Doctor, and keep Jackie as me."

The New Doctor, the man that slaughtered Davros and the Dalek's, made her look at him, before whispering in her ear. Then when he pulled away, she kissed him, hard and passionately, before hugging both Jackie and him, as Donna, dad and I went back into the TARDIS, leaving my old life behind.

Yet somehow, even though dad still had me, he wasn't happy, looking sadly at Donna as she got us moving. "I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move. Can you imagine?"

"And how do you know that?" He asked her softly.

She just smiled at him. "Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine."

Wait... no... No, she had too much... "And how does that feel?"

Donna beamed at us as I hugged my knees to my chest on the jump seat, suddenly not finding anything funny. "Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary." She gasped. "I'm fine." No you weren't. "Nah, never mind Felspoon. You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester. Charlie Brown. No, he's fiction. Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton." And this time it hurt, bright shards of orange as she doubled over. "Oh, my God."

"Do you know what's happening?" Dad asked her. The woman I'd only briefly known, yet cared for like I cared for Rose nodded. "There's never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why."

"Because there can't be, Jace, Callie, she's a special case because she was born like it." She straightened up, moving back to the console. "I want to stay."

Dad walked closer. "Look at me. Donna, look at me."

it took a moment, but she did. "I was going to be with you forever. Help look after Callie."

"I know. She would have loved you because you were amazing."

She was already crying, and I started to as well, silent sobs that flashed purple around me. "The rest of my life, travelling in the TARDIS. The Doctor Donna. No. Oh my god. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back. Callie, help me, please."

I couldn't, I couldn't look at her, because it hurt, just as much as it was hurting dad to have to do this to his best friend. "Donna. Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry. But we had the best of times." Donna was still trying to stop him. "The best. Goodbye."

And them she was gone, and we had to try and get her from the TARDIS to her house, and I ran to the door, hammering on it until Wilf came to answer it. "Help us."

"Donna?" He asked, looking as dad cradled her not far from the door. "Donna?"

He helped us to get her to her bed, then went downstairs, a thunderstorm coming in hard, making me flinch and wimper at the noise. I hated them, they were so, so scary... "She took my mind into her own head. But that's a Time Lord consciousness. All that knowledge, it was killing her."

"But she'll get better now?" Wilf asked, as dad kept his arm around me.

"He had to wipe her mind completely. Every trace of him, me, or the TARDIS, anything they did together, anywhere they went, had to go. Even from before I changed, she can't know me with this face, or the last one."

Her grandfather put his hand to his mouth, close to tears. "All those wonderful things she did."

Dad nodded sadly, his eyes full of tears. "I know. But that version of Donna is dead. Because if she remembers, just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention me, my daughter or any of it for the rest of her life."

"But the whole world's talking about it." Sylvia reminded us. "We travelled across space."

"It'll just be a story, just like everything else. One of those Donna Noble stories, where she missed it all again."

Wilf shook his head. "But she was better with you." His daughter was horrified. "No, she was."

Could they not just agree on something for once?! "I just want you to know there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away, radiating the space with every colour ever created. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe."

Sylvia sniffed, lifting her head is. "She still is. She's my daughter."

"Then maybe you should tell her that once in a while, because children listen to their parent's. Jace, Callie, she succeeded because I believed in her."

"I was asleep on my bed in my clothes, like a flipping kid!" A familiar voice suddenly said, appearing next to us. "What do you let me do that for? Don't mind me. Donna."

Dad stood us both up, holding out his hand as she checked her phone. "John Smith. This is my daughter Callie."

"Mister Smith and Calliope were just leaving."

"My phone's gone mad. Thirty two texts. Veena's gone barmy. She's saying planets in the sky. What have I missed now? Nice to meet you." And the she left, just as Sylvia reiterated that we should leave.

We tried to say goodbye to Donna on the way out, but she didn't even see us, just looked right through who we were. As it should be.

The rain was still bucketing it down, and dad put his jacket over my head as he looked up into it. "Ah. You'll have quite a bit of this. Atmospheric disturbance. Still, it'll pass. Everything does. Bye then, Wilfred."

"Oh, Doctor, Callie? What about you now? Who've you got, besides each other? I mean, all those friends of yours."

"They've all got someone else." I said softly,hugging him softly. "Still, that's fine. I'm fine."

Wilf looked horrified at the idea of us being alone. " I'll watch out for you, sir, little miss."

Wait, what? "You can't ever tell her."

He shook his head sadly. "No, no, no. But every night, Doctor, Callie, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I'll look up on her behalf. I'll look up at the sky, and think of you both."

"Thank you." We both whispered, then went back to the TARDIS, back to the life we were about to lead. Alone.


	23. Siren

The Doctor:

Donna was gone, but Jace, she, she came back. Thing is, she was different, more than the regeneration, when I first saw her, so was so much darker, her long blonde curls had been shaved along one side of her head, her eyes were rimmed in thick black make up. If I hadn't have known better, I'd have said that it was Jackie, not Jace, well, she'd dropped her human name now, either being called Callie, and CJ, Calliope Jace. Made me think Calamity Jane.

She was asleep now, curled up on the jump seat just like her first night on the TARDIS, her now dark brown hair over her face. Callie looked so young now, and the fact she died, she was prepared to die, just to come back home. Brushing her hair off her face, I kissed her cheek softly, pulling a blanket over her.

I lost two children in the last 2 years. Callie, and then Jenny this year. I thought I'd lost everything in such a short time, but here she was. Calliope. She stirred a little, before her brighter, bluer eyes opened, pausing for a moment before focussing on me. "Hey, dad." Callie muttered, sitting up slowly. "How long was I asleep for?"

"About 15 hours, which asks a question, when did you last sleep, Love?" I asked her softly, kneeling down next to her again. "You never slept that long before, and a regeneration never changes your sleep patterns."

That made her look down, hiding behind her soft hair. "Dad, I'm fine, OK? 4 years, no anti dream pills, so I created anti sleep pills instead. I haven't needed to sleep in 3 and a half years."

Wait, what? Did she know how dangerous that was?! "Jacyln! The fact that this even came into your head is horrifying. Sleep, sleep is sacred, and that was the only thing you had to recover, and you chose to give it up?"

"Yeah, I did. Because I started sleepwalking, and I attacked someone. I attacked a lot of someones. Which meant that I was a liability, and if I didn't want to be locked in an asylum until they borderline exorcised me, then I had to get an alternative." Callie told me, completely straight faced, and I hugged my little girl tight. "OK, can't breathe..."

That made me laugh a little, and I let go, but kept hold of her arms. "You, need, to, sleep. Those pills are here now, but you just slept that entire time without a bad dream. So, lets try without them for a while, and if you need then, we'll make them up."

She nodded a little, brushing her hair out of the way again. "So much hair... But its nice than last time. Smoother."

"OK, stop being vain over your hair, and come get dressed. We do have things to do, so maybe we should hurry up and do them." So then I picked up my 17 year old, ish, daughter,and swung her over my shoulder in a firemans lift.

Which made her squeal, hitting at my back. "DAD! Come on!" But she was laughing, so it was fine, and I threw her down onto the sofa in the wardrobe. "Why are we in here, I have clothes in my own room, a room I have not seen in 4 years. I have my guitar in there."

"And? You've barely been in here, you got a load of Rose's cast offs. The best part of regenerating is finding out the best type of clothes that work with your new body, love." I told her, sitting down in the chair next to her. The wardrobe was like a shopping centre now, seeing as the TARDIS got bored rather a lot, and the coral had gone in here.

It was also full of mostly teenage girl things, and Jace, well, CJ, was now already on her feet, looking through the racks, pulling out a few things to start trying on. I found myself dozing through a lot of it, and begrudgingly said my opinion on something. She needed a mother, someone who actually knew about some of these things, because I had no idea how to be a dad to a teenage girl on my own.

I had Esina, my wife last time. She was the perfect mother to my other daughter, Alyce who was one of the first to die in the war, and my only son, Caleb, who went missing during the Fall of Arcadia. Esina had long, long chocolate brown hair, the colour of Lindt melted over the back of a spoon, and eyes like pools of honey you could swim in, and skin like olives, an Amazonian Warrior.

"Dad?" CJ asked me, coming out of the changing room in a plan black strappy dress with some black heels. "This is seriously comfy, these shoes make me tall for once."

Oh, I was far too much of an old fashioned dad for this. "Wow, um, yeah... Looks good."

Her eyes rolled back into her head. "I so knew you were going to say that. I was lying, these shoes pinch like mad. I could probably deal with them for a party, but I'm sticking to the combat boots." And with that, Callie went back into the room after kicking off the heels.

"So, your name. Are you going to stick to Callie, go back to Jace, or what?" I asked her, sitting forward to put them together and back onto the rack. "Because Time Lords do change their names, not often, mostly if they just change gender, but if you suddenly feel more attached to a different name, then it should be fine."

There was a pause before she replied, sounding like she was struggling to get the tight dress off. Practicality was a key thing to think about in our line of work, and she would not have been able to run in that dress. "Callie. It's short for my real name, the one that you found. Calliope. I mean, I don't look like Jace anymore, she was like Jackie. Callie Smith, your daughter."

And then she came back out, sticking to the black straps with the black camisole, but there was also a red crop top over the top with plain black leggings, my old leather jacket, still as crumpled and faded as when I used to wear it, but it looked a lot better on her. "My daughter who looks pretty bad ass right now. Right, how old are you again? I look at you and still see a 14 year old."

That made her laugh, brushing out her long chestnut hair before starting on her make up. She never used to wear that, but oh well. "I'm 51, dad. Don't look, or feel, it, but I'm older than Jackie. Not older than you though."

"Well, you're old enough to at least go to the pub. We could use a night off, there's nice quiet place in the Jackroth region, the Singing Nun of all things. Great karaoke." Callie grinned at me through the mirror. "Yeah, yeah, I knew you'd like that, love. You're going to be a hit, just try not to fry the electronics."

"Meh, meh, meh. Dad, remember that I've managed that a lot of times. I know what to do to turn off my sonic voice. You get us going, come on, mush." She was definitely sassy right now. My daughter sass mistress. Perfect.

But I lead the way back to the console room, again, and set us off to the Singing Nun. I managed to park safely, hard when there were so many vehicles around. "Huh, it's normally a quiet one, because Space Vegas is only a light year away."

Callie didn't look amused. "So you're taking me to a pub where barely anyone will hear me? Well, you were, but there's already someone singing. Sounds weird, like there's something else in there." And with that, she started off into the pub, her red Docs crunching in all the gravel on the ground.

I followed, mostly because I didn't know what she was actually on about, but also because I couldn't really leave my daughter in the bar on her own. If there were this many people, there were bound to be some less than savoury specimens in there, maybe some people that had been kicked out of Space Vegas. "Cal, wait up, will you?"

"No, you hurry up." This was not helping, but she had just regenerated. She wasn't used to having to think so much about what she said. "That was rude, wasn't it? Sorry, I didn't meant to be rude, dad."

Smiling, I patted her shoulder as we walked in. "This is going to be an interesting experience. What do you want to drink, I'll get you one alcoholic one."

"Amaretto and Coke, definitely." Callie laughed, playing with her newly dark hair. She loved this, having darker hair, but her curls were still there. Curly Haired Song, could that have stayed with her? Her mothers curls? River Song, the woman who died to save me, and so many other people in the Library. Could that be her mother, and if so, did that mean we grew incredibly close? "Dad? Hello, Earth to dad?"

Wait, she'd been talking? "Right, yes, sorry." I went to the bar as she sat down, taking off her jacket. "Hey, one amaretto and coke, and a lemonade please."

"We don't do lemonade, only alcohol."

"Really? Oh, right then, I'll have a shandy." Which included lemonade for crying out loud. But I paid with the sonic, as I didn't carry money, before carrying them both to the table as Calliope watched the woman on the stage, having a sing off with someone who looked Uninan. They were performers by nature, and this woman was obliterating him. I found myself compelled to watch her, like all the men were, even the guy on the stage was watching her, his voice wavering. I didn't even think she was that good, she was just, I dunno, compelling? No, I'd used that word, maybe, betwitching?

"Dad, you're staring at the woman."

I didn't even looked away to look at my daughter. "Hmm?" It wasn't until she'd finished singing I managed to look away. "Sorry, CJ, what were you saying?"

Except she wasn't there, she was now climbing onto the stage as the other man got off. "When did she even get up?" I asked myself as she was introduced as Calliope, and that she'd be singing against the reining champion. "Callie, what are you doing?"

So then the Champion, Annetta, started, and everyone in the room, well, the men, were transfixed by her, and I found myself staring again, even though I was rooting for Callie. And the she butted in through the waxing, sad song of Annetta, breaking out in Misery Business by Paramore, and I managed to break free from whatever had me looking at her to smile at my daughter, her powerful voice making the glasses on the table rattle slightly. "I'm in the business of misery, lets take it from the top, she's got a body like an hour glass its ticking like a clock-"

But for some reason a lot of the other guys started booing her, just wanting to hear Annetta sing, and the woman interrupted her with her moaning, soft voice, like water down... Like water down a stream! Callie was still on the stage by this point, but I ran back to the bartender, who was the only one not watching her sing. "How long have most of these men been here?"

"Well, it's a toss up. There are a few who are locals, come every night, and others stay here. Annetta's good for business, though your one's got a good voice."

"The best voice, because your Annetta isn't that good, the only reason she's still here is because she's feeding off the attention and minds of all these men. I was wondering why you were so busy, must be perfect having people stay here all the time, buying things, filling up the carpark."

The man stared at me. "What do you think you know, little man?"

Little? This was the second tallest I'd ever been thank you very much. "Siren. She's a Siren from the Water World of Messaline 6, a world where most of the females were taken and sold as slaves when it was found they were linked to the living ice at the core of the planet, and could be controlled through it. I don't want to know how you got hold of her, only who, and that you give me the control you have over her before I call the Shadow Proclamation to come and have your little bar closed."

That made him smile slightly, taking out a small pendant of ice from her home world, never melting. "You mean like this? And you know that her voice can also control them, the men. If I think what I want her to do..." Like a demonstration, at once all of the men got to their feet, booing my daughter and throwing things. "You've been warned."

"No, you have." I told him darkly, moving away, and going right into a wall of men, one of them holding Jace, er, Callie. "Let her go. Trust me, she won't take you threatening her lightly, if my daughter gets hurt..."

"No, you're going to leave. Your little girl can be a good addition to my waiting staff. Throw him into the car park, take Miss Calliope to the kitchens." No matter how hard either of us fought, even with her voice making the electrics quiver before she was gagged. And I was thrown down in front of the TARDIS.

I scrambled inside, reaching out to Callie with my mind. Callie, Calliope!

Dad? W, what the hell happened, they all just went for me!

My fault. I forgot how valuable Siren's were, of course he wasn't just going to let me take her home and link her back to the main Ice. Where are you, love?

I'm, I'm in the kitchens, I'm tied to the radiator with my mouth gagged, and it's just cloth, not something I can get rid of.

Cal, you can put things on fire, remember?

Good point.There was a pause as I started to do a tip for the Shadow Proclamation, before I heard her in my mind again. I'm free, and the fires out. Annetta's singing again, so all the men are entranced. That was a good word, entranced. What do I do, you said the woman could be freed?

Perfect, she always knew what I was thinking. There's a pendant, made of Ice, you shatter that, or just get hold of it, you control her, and you can get her into the TARDIS without others stopping you. But be careful, she aims it hard enough at you, and she might be able to control you too. Block your ears so you can't hear her song.

Makes sense. I'll use some of this goose fat, that should insulate my ears. What happened to being vegetarian? Well, you just regenerated, and it would make food shopping considerably easier. I'll still be able to hear you, so it's like the Phoenix thing again. That went so well last time. Hey, we found out you were my daughter.

Tell me what you're doing. Keep in full contact, Callie.

Yeah, I will. I'm just sneaking out the kitchen, I'm snuffing out the creaky floorboards, he really needs to fix that.That was really the important thing there, Cal. Right, I'm behind the bar, and I can see the guy who controls Annetta.

Calliope, please. Be careful, I only just got you back, I'm not losing you again.

There was a moment of silence, before I heard my daughter's voice, her proper voice coming through as I ran to the doors, making it back into the room as the ice around his neck shattered. "Callie!"

"Dad!" She cried after finishing, running back to me. "I shattered it, singing Evanescence. Kinda cool considering my voice used to be Katherine Jenkins and now it's Hayley Williams."

"You stupid idiots! You set her free!" The bartend shouted, going for her, but she just dodged easily, before grabbing his hand and flipping him over and in one movement, tied his hands together with her hair tie. My daughter is nothing if not resourceful. "I was going to lose this place, I had to buy her to save it!"

Callie folded her arms a little, her dark blue eyes hardening. "So buying a slave who is suffering every moment that she's away from her own kind is a way to save a bar that people didn't want to go to because you bought an asteroid too close to Space Vegas? No, just no."

"Couldn't put it better myself." I smiled at her, then headed out to where Annetta was still stood on the stage, looking in confusion at all the unconscious men around her. "Hey, it's OK, this wasn't you. I'm the Doctor, what's your real name?"

"Aliyanna." She said hesitantly. "I, I'm Aliya. W, where am I? I remember, people coming to my house, when I was a kid, and everything since then... It's like it was a dream..."

Oh God, they took her as a child and made her sing. "Yeah. Right. OK. Aliya, we're going to take you home, but you're not a kid, you're about 27 I'd say. This is my daughter, Callie. She's the one who unlinked you from the Ice Shard." I told her as Jace got closer. "Her voice can break hypersonic barriers."

"Um, sure..." She breathed. "I, I'm so scared, please... please, can you take me home please?"

We nodded, taking her to the TARDIS and then to her planet. They were still recovering from everything by this point, and we left her with refugees, before checking that the bar, my old favourite, had been shut down for good.

Funny how things changed in such a short time. Only 4 years ago Calliope was a little human girl on Earth, in my time line, and now? She was an amazing Time Lord, who transitioned her first regeneration better than anyone I knew. Let's just hoped it would be a while before her next one.


	24. Christmas Miracle

CJ:

Why, why, why, was I in a Victorian dress? He wasn't even sure that was where we landed, and he knew I hated dresses! But I walked out with him wearing a TARDIS blue dress with a purple wrap to shield myself from the snow through a archway.

It was a market, and there were people everywhere as a bobby nodded to us as dad looked at a little kid running about. "You there, boy. What day is this?"

"Christmas Eve, sir, miss." Oh, Miss. Right yes, I looked young again, of course. New appearance, kept confusing me.

"What year?"

He frowned at us. "You thick or something?"

Meanie. "Oi. Just answer the question, Mr."

"Year of our Lord 1851, sir."

Dad nodded a little, putting his hands in his pockets. "Right. Nice year. Bit dull."

"Doctor! Doctor!" Of course someone had to start shouting then. Wouldn't be us if there wasn't. We ran towards the voice, a dark red voice laced with yellow fear that led to a woman in an alley way.

"Don't worry, don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here?" Something shoved the door, snarling. "Okay, I've got it. Whatever's behind that door, I think you should get out of here." She shouted for the Doctor again. Really? "No, no. he's standing right here."

Dad waved. "Hello."

The woman was then looking horrified. "Don't be stupid. Who are you and the child?"

"I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter Calliope, Callie."

"Doctor who?"

He said the usual. "Just the Doctor."

"Well, there can't be two of you." You wanna bet? But then another man then ran up."Where the hell have you been?"

The man tried to take charge right away, and dad was staring at him. "Right then. Don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here then?"

OK, this was too much. "Hold on, hold on. Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor. The one, the only and the best." Definitely with a big enough ego to be dad. "Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver."

"The what?"

"Now quickly, get back to the TARDIS." I don't think dad could look more bewildered or gormless. "If you could stand back, sir. This is a job for a Time Lord." Hiya, we were just in Time Lords! OK, my internal monologue was far too full of jokes.

The doors then burst open and an animal with Cyberman-style head was visible. "Oh, that's different." I muttered at the same time as the other two, holding out my hand, dad and the other guy pointing screwdrivers.

"Allons-y." Wow, this was going so well, where was the other me?

"I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight. Now step back, sir, Miss."

The creature leaped away, landing on the opposite wall, furry body with metal hands and feet. Metal skeleton too, I could shatter it. "Some sort of primitive conversion, like they took the brain of a cat or a dog. Good thing we made Rain human again."

Other Doctor, as I didn't really think he could be dad, he had the wrong voice, looked at his friend. "Well, talking's all very well. Rosita?" The woman held out a large coil of rope. "Now, watch and learn." He managed to lasso the loop around the thing in one try. Try and do that, dad. "Excellent. Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to earth." Uh, he used that to describe Rose, not some Cybershade thing.

Except it climbed higher, pulling him with it. "Or not, love."

"I might be in a little bit of trouble." We could see that.

Dad was enjoying this. "Nothing changes. I've got you." Except now he was off the ground too.

"You idiots!" Rosita and I shouted, and I tied the shawl around myself, ready to free run up the wall after them. Why did dad always need rescuing, not the Companions?

"Perhaps if you could pull?" The other guy asked him.

He just rolled his eyes. "I am pulling. In this position, I couldn't not pull, could I?"

The creature started climbing again. "Then I suggest you let go, sir."

"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Doctor. Don't you recognise me?"

"No, should I?" Probably, if you were actually my dad. "Have we met? This is hardly the right time for me to go through my social calendar. Argh!"

They were then pulled up and I sprinted after them, getting quickly frustrated with the full skirts. How did I wear even bigger ones for 30 years?! But I managed to unravel the rope, just as they were about to be pulled out, and Rosita came up with an axe. Not bad. But the men stood up, laughing and hugging. "Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny. You're mad. Both of you. You could've been killed. Dad!"

With that, he hugged me. "Nice move, Callie."

"Oh, I should introduce Rosita." Other Doctor was still laughing. "My faithful companion. Always telling me off."

Dad smiled at her, still holding my hand. "Well, they do, don't they? Rosita. Good name. Hello, Rosita."

The woman frowned a little. "Huh. Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps. All that for nothing. And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget. Then back to the TARDIS, right?"

"Funeral?" I questioned, fixing my wrap.

"Oh, long story. Not my own, not yet. Oh, I'm not as young as I was."

Dad then got cryptic, and basically didn't make sense. "Well, not as young as you were when you were me."

"When I was who?"

Which confused him. "You really don't recognise me? Or Callie? CJ?"

The guy shook his head. "Not at all."

"But you're the Doctor. The next Doctor. Or the next but one. A future Doctor anyway. No, no, don't tell me how it happened. Although, I hope I don't just trip over a brick. That'd be embarrassing. Then again, painless. Worse ways to go. Depends on the brick." What were you on about?

"You're gabbling, sir. Now might I ask, who are you, exactly? With your pale as snow daughter?" Um, did he basically just call me Snow White? My least favourite Princess? I loved Mulan and Merida.

At which point he quickly started to think of a back up plan. "No, I'm, er, I'm just. Smith. John Smith, this is my 17 year old daughter, Calliope Jace. But we've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend, if I say so myself." Seriously?

The other man got flustered. "Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir. But yes. Yes, I am. Calliope Jace? Jace, a name I love as much as my own." Right... So he knew Jace, but not Calliope?

"A legend with certain memories missing. Am I right?" I asked him softly, leaning into my dad.

"How do you know that?"

Dad looked from him to me. "You've forgotten her. Even this new face."

He nodded sadly. "Great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing."

"Going how far back?"

"Since the Cybermen. Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town. You won't believe this, Mister Smith, Miss Calliope, but they are creatures from another world."

Such a shock that our voices went dead. "Really. Wow."

Not that the guy realised we were using intense sarcasm. "It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light. And they found me. Something was taken. And something was lost. What was I like, in the past?"

Dad frowned a little. "I don't think I should say. Sorry. Got to be careful with memory loss. One wrong word-"

"It's strange, though. I talk of Cybermen from the stars and you don't blink, Mister Smith, neither you nor your daughter."

"Ah, don't blink. Remember that?" Dad, what were you talking about? "Whatever you do, don't blink? The blinking and the statues? Sally and the angels? No?" OK, I was confused.

The other Doctor was looking at him warily. "You're a very odd man."

"Hmm, I still am. Something's wrong here."

And then something clicked in his brain. "Oh, the funeral! The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mister Smith, Miss Callie. Don't breathe a word of it."

Hmm, sounded fun. "Oh, but can't we come with you?"

"It's far dangerous, especially for a lady such as your daughter. Rest assured, I shall keep this city safe. Oh, and, er merry Christmas, Mister Smith, Callie."

"Merry Christmas, Doctor." Dad smiled, shaking his hand. And then we followed him at a short distance.

They were headed to a graveyard, and I frowned when I saw something hiding, a dark grey flash, and there was a solemn crowd, following the carriage. "The late Reverend Fairchild, leaving his place of residence for the last time." I heard the man up ahead. "God rest his soul. Now, with the house empty, I shall effect an entrance at the rear while you go back to the TARDIS. This is hardly work for a woman."

Rosita shook her head, her curls shaking. "Oh, don't mind me saving your life. That's work for a woman, isn't it?"

"The Doctor's companion does what The Doctor says. Off you go." Since when does that actually work?

As he went for the back door, we went to the front, my hands easily getting through the crappy locks, and we let the new guy in through the other door with a smile. "Hello."

He stared at us. "How did you get in?"

"Oh, front door. I'm good at doors, sir." I laughed, my blue eyes bright, before I narrowed them at the screwdriver in his hand. "Er, do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?"

"Yes. I'd be lost without it."

It really wasn't anything special. Just a normal screwdriver. "But that's a screwdriver. How's it sonic?"

The man hesitated, before tapping it lightly on the door handle. "Well, er, it makes a noise. That's sonic, isn't it? Now, since we're acting like common burglars, I suggest we get out of plain view."

That was a good point, and we retreated into the house, looking through things. "This investigation of yours, what's it about?"

"It started with a murder."

"Oh, good." We both frowned a little at dad. "I mean bad, but whose?"

"Mr Jackson Lake, a teacher of mathematics from Sussex. He came to London three weeks ago and died a terrible death."

Really? "Cybermen?"

He shrugged a little as I looked around, messing with things. "It's hard to say. His body was never found. But then it started. More secret murders, then abductions. Children, stolen away in silence." Great, I had to regenerate into a kid, didn't I?

Dad wrapped his arm around me at that, getting worried. "So whose house is this?"

"The latest murder." The supposed new regeneration of my dad replied. "The Reverend Aubrey Fairchild, found with burns to his forehead, like some advanced form of electrocution." Lovely image, ta.

Right, but there were tonnes of religious people at this time. "But who was he? Was he important?"

The man frowned at me. "You ask a lot of questions, you and your father." Yeah, we were good at it.

"We're your companions." Dad grinned, looking pleased. Really?

He hesitated again, before looking up at us. "The Reverend was the pillar of the community, a member of many parish boards. A keen advocate of children's charities."

Huh. "Children again. But why would the Cybermen want him dead? And what's his connection to the first death, this Jackson Lake?"

"It's funny. I seem to be telling you both everything, as though you engendered some sort of trust. You seem familiar, Mister Smith, Miss Callie. I know your faces. But how?" Well, yeah. There might be a reason.

But then dad frowned, moving closer to him. "I wonder. I can't help noticing you're wearing a fob watch."

"Is that important?"

"Legend has it that the memories of a Time Lord can be contained within a watch." Really? Cool. "Do you mind?" The man handed dad the watch. "It's said that if it's opened-" And then it was opened, and everything fell out from inside. Maybe not. "Oh. Maybe not."

"It was more for decoration."

Right, back on subject then. "Yeah. Anyway, alien infiltration."

"Yes. Just look for anything different. Possibly metal. Anything that doesn't seem to belong. Perhaps a mechanical device that could fit no earthly engine." Dad and Isurreptitiously scanned with our sonic things, my hands and his screwdriver. "It could even seem to be organic, but unlike any organism of the natural world. Shush! What's that noise?"

"Oh, it's just us, whistling. I wonder what's in here, though." I smiled, opening a writing desk and took out two metal cylinders that resonated my sonic abilities. "Ah. Different and metal, you were right.They are infostamps. I mean, at a guess. If I were you, I'd say they worked something like this." I pressed on end and imaged were projected out of the other. Cool. "See? Compressed information. Tons of it. That is the history of London, 1066 to the present day. This is like a disc, a Cyberdisc. But why would the Cybermen need something so simple? They've got to be wireless. Unless, they're in the wrong century. They haven't got much power. They need plain old basic infostamps to update themselves. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

Dad could see that he wasn't. "No, what is it? What's wrong?"

He was staring at the thing in my hand. "I've seen one of these before. I was holding this device the night I lost my mind. The night I regenerated. The Cybermen, they made me change. My mind, my face, my whole self. And you were there, with a girl with long ash hair. Who are you both?" Trust me, that ash hair was very annoying, it was so frizzy and curly.

"Friends. We swear."

"Then I beg you, John, Callie. Help me."

Dad smiled, taking my hand tight. "Ah. Two words we never refuse. But it's not a conversation for a dead man's house. It'll make more sense if we go back to the TARDIS." Then he rectified this for himself. "Your TARDIS. Hold on. I just need to do a little final check. Won't take a tick. There's one more thing I cannot figure. If this room's got infostamps, then maybe, just maybe, it's got something that needs infostamping." And opened a door to show a Cyberman behind the door. "Okay." And closed again. "I think we should run."

The door was smashed down and I grabbed the new Doctor, pulling him away. "Run, Doctor! Now, Doctor!" More appeared, and dad started to lead them up the stairs, before grabbing an umbrella, and realised that wasn't going to help, so I threw him a sword like our first Christmas together.

"Thanks, Callie. I'm a dab hand with a cutlass. You don't want to come near me when I've got one of these with my daughter at risk. This is your last warning. No? Olay, this is really your last warning! Okay, I give up.Listen to me properly. Whatever you're doing stuck in 1851, I can help! I mean it. I'm the only person in the world who can help you! Listen to me!" You expected a Cyberman to listen, really? "I'm the Doctor. You need me. Check your memory banks. My name's the Doctor, and that is my daughter Calliope Jace Smith. Leave this man alone. The Doctor is me!" Dadgot a foot onto the leading Cyberman's chest and pushed them back downstairs. "The Doctor, remember? I'm the Doctor! You need me alive. You need the Doctor and the Seer, and that's us!"

But then they threw something at him, and I let rip a note that knocked it aside, moving forward, but fell to the side as the New Doctor activated the infostamp and beamed it at the Cyberman, knocking them down and their heads exploded. Sweet.

"Infostamp with a Cyclo-Steinham core." Dad breathed, pulling me closer. "You ripped open the core and broke the safety. Zap! Only the Doctor would think of that."

"I did that last time."

You poor man... "Come here. You'll be okay. Let me just check."

He was incredibly confused. "You told them you were the Doctor. Why did you do that? The Doctor doesn't have a daughter, I know that I don't." Uh, hi, I was right here, and we did a DNA test.

"Oh, I was just protecting you. And you do, I know your history."

"You're trying to take away the only thing I've got, like they did. They stole something, something so precious, but I can't remember. What happened to me? What did they do? Was it my daughter, and I forgot her? My own child, Calliope?" Well, it would explain where future me was.

"We'll find out. You and us together." I smiled, putting my hand on his shoulder. This dress was really restricting me.

We headed out, going back to where Rosita was waiting for the future Doctor, and she hugged him. "Doctor!I thought you were dead!"

He smiled a little, and patted her back. "Now then, Rosita. A little decorum." Huh. Dad always loved hugs.

"You've been gone for so long. He's always doing this, leaving me behind. Going frantic."

"Yeah, tell me about it." I sighed. "Got left for ages in a tiny flat because he was saving the world."

"What about the TARDIS?"

The woman grinned, her dark eyes glinting. "Oh, she's ready. Come on."

This was going to be interesting. "I'm looking forward to this."

They lead the way to the stables, and there were no horses, just stalls that were converted into his living space. "You were right though, Rosita. The Reverend Fairchild's death was the work of the Cybermen."

"So, you live here?" I asked, looking around as I hummed to myself, the lights flickering slightly. Loved messing with fire.

"A temporary base, until we rout the enemy." He agreed. "The TARDIS is magnificent, but it's hardly a home." It was our home.

Dad had paused at that, looking over at him. "And where's the TARDIS now?"

His head jerked through the doors. "In the yard." Right.

"Er, what's all this luggage?"

"Evidence. The property of Jackson Lake, the first man to be murdered." How did you even get hold of it? "Oh, but my new friends are fighters, Rosita, much like myself. He faced the Cybermen with a cutlass. I'm not ashamed to say, he was braver than I. He was quite brilliant." I was scanning the luggage at this point, trying to find something. There was something bugging me here. "Are you whistling again, Miss Callie??"

Ah, right. "Yes. Yes, I am, yeah. Yeah." I mouthed shush to Rosita as I relaxed my hands, the softly blue light stopping as I took a suitcase from the pile.

"That's another man's property."

Your point? "Well, a dead man's." I opened it, tucking my long dark hair behind my ear to look inside it. "How did you two meet, then?"

Rosita smiled a little. "He saved my life. Late one night, by the Osterman's Wharf, this creature came out of the shadows. A man made of metal. I thought I was going to die. And then, there he was. The Doctor." The she paused, frowning a little. "Can you help him, sir, Miss? He has such terrible dreams. Wakes at night in such a state of terror." I'd heard that, hearing my dad screaming in the night. He didn't think I could hear him, but I could, and it made me wonder what truly happened in his past, and how bad it had been while I was gone.

"Come now, Rosita. With all the things a Time Lord has seen, everything he's lost, he may surely have bad dreams."

Dads eyes glazed over for a moment, and I could see his own nightmares in his eyes. "Yeah. Oh, now. Look. Jackson Lake had an infostamp."

"But how?" The new dad asked, frowning at me as I took it out. "Is that significant?"

"Doctor, the answer to all this is in your TARDIS." I told him softly, and I saw that he was watching me carefully. "Can I see it? Me and my dad?"

He smiled brightly at me. "Miss Smith, it would be my honour." The guy lead us through into the yard, and we looked up to see a delicately patterned, mostly blue, hot air balloon. "There she is. My transport through time and space. The TARDIS."

This, this was so weird. "You've got a balloon."

"TARDIS." He corrected. "T A R D I S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Do you see?"

Dad raised his eyebrows, getting a little confused. "Well, I do now. I like it. Good TARDIS. Brilliant. Nice one. And is it inflated by gas, yeah?"

He nodded. "We're adjacent to the Mutton Street Gasworks. I pay them a modest fee. Good work, Jed."

The man slapped a guy on the shoulder and handed him a big five pound note. "Glad to be of service, sir."

Since when did dad carry money? He made Rose buy chips all the time. "You've got quite a bit of money."

"Oh, you get nothing for nothing." He smiled. "How's that ripped panel, Jed?"

"All repaired. Should work a treat. You never know, maybe tonight's the night, Doctor. Imagine it, seeing Christmas from above."

"Not just yet, I think. One day, I will ascend. One day soon."

The guy left, and dad wrapped his arm around as I shivered in the cold night. "You've never actually been up?"

"He dreams of leaving, but never does." Rosita agreed.

"I can depart in the TARDIS once London is safe. And finally, when I'm up there. Think of it, John, Callie. The time and the space."

He smiled, resting his head on top of mine, kissing my silky waves. "The perfect escape. Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?"

The guy sighed. "With every moment."

"Then do you want us to tell you?" I asked him softly, hugging my arms around myself. "Because I think I've worked it out now. How you became The Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?"

We went back to sit in the stables, and I huddled under dads coat as he explained. So cold. "The story begins with the Cybermen. A long time away, and not so far from here, the Cybermen were fought, and they were beaten. And they were sent into a howling wilderness called The Void, locked inside forever more, by an amazing girl called Calliope Jace Smith, at the cost of her freedom. But then a greater battle rose up, so great that everything inside the Void perished, letting the girl out of her prison. But, as the walls of the world weakened, the last of the Cybermen must have fallen through the dimensions, back in time, to land here. And they found you."

"I fought them, I know that. But what happened?"

I took a breath. "At the same time, another man came to London. Mister Jackson Lake. Plenty of luggage, money in his pocket. Maybe coming to town for the winter season, I don't know. But he found the Cybermen too. And just like you, exactly like you, he took hold of an infostamp."

The other man shook his head. "But he's dead. Jackson Lake is dead. The Cybermen murdered him."

You poor guy. "You said no body was ever found. And you kept all his suitcases, but you could never bring yourself to open them. Dad told you the answer was in the fob watch. Can I see?" He handed it to me, and I ran my thumb over it, the case plain except for two initials. "J L. The watch is Jackson Lake's."

"Jackson Lake is you, sir?" Rosita asked.

"But I'm the Doctor."

"You became the Doctor because the infostamp you picked up was a book about one particular man." Dad picked it up and I saw all of his faces. "The Cybermen's database. Stolen from the Daleks inside the Void, I'd say, but it's everything you could want to know about the Doctor."

The image got to number ten, and there was me with him, ash blonde and broken. So broken. "That's you, and the girl." I had a name, poppet.

"Time Lord, TARDIS, enemy of the Cybermen." I laughed a little. "The one and the only. You see, the infostamp must have backfired. Streamed all that information about my dad right inside your head."

Which didn't help him at all. "I am nothing but a lie."

Dad shook his head, moving closer. "No, no, no, no, no. Infostamps are just facts and figures. All that bravery. Saving Rosita, defending London town, hmm? And the invention. Building a TARDIS. That's all you."

"And what else? Tell me what else."

Oh God. "You said it felt like I could be the thing missing, but Mr Lake, I can't be. The Dalek's and the Cybermen don't know enough about me. To them, to them, Callie Smith is just a ball of noise that can fry them in their shells. Trust me, I'm not the thing you think is missing. There's something more, isn't there?"

"I demand you tell me, sir. Tell me what they took." He shouted at dad, and I flinched at the sound.

Dad shook his head, holding me tighter. "Sorry. Really, I am so sorry, but that's an awful lot of luggage for one man. Because an infostamp is plain technology. It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called a fugue. A fugue state, where the mind just runs away because it can't bear to look back. You wanted to become someone else, because Jackson Lake had lost so much."

A church bell tolled the hours. "Midnight. Christmas Day." Rosita muttered.

"I remember. Oh, my God." Jackson started sobbing. "Caroline. They killed my wife. They killed her."

The infostamp beeped. The button on the end was lit up and there were more of them in a trunk. "Oh, you found a whole cache of infostamps."

"But what is it? What's that noise?"

"Activation." I breathed, getting quickly to my feet, nearly falling over in the stupid dress. "A call to arms. The Cybermen are moving!" We ran outside, seeing shadows dancing on the wall in a marching formation. "Oh, god. It's kids..."

Dad ran forwards, trying to get them to listen. "Can you hear me? Hello? No? Mister Cole, you seem to have something in your ear. Now, this might hurt a bit, but if I can just-" A Cybershade growled nearby, and I knew that I was pinpoint accurate enough with my voice to just fry that things brain. "Ah. They're on guard. Can't risk a fight. Not with the children, Callie, cool your voice."

"But where are they going?"

"They all need a good whipping, if you ask me." Jed told us. "There's tons of them. I've just seen another lot coming down from the Ingleby Workhouse down Broadback Lane." You big headed egotist, they were children!

"Where's that?"

Rosita lead the way, and we watched the children being walked past, and followed them to a sewage works, opened by a Cyberman. "You will continue. You will enter the Court of the CyberKing. March. That is an order. March!"

The shades stopped the kids from scattering, and dad held me tighter. "That's the door to the sluice. All the sewage runs through there, straight into the Thames."

"Yeah, that's too well guarded. We'll have to find another way in." I muttered, but then more Cybermen snuck up behind us."Whoa! That's cheating, sneaking up. Do you have your legs on silent?" I asked, genuinely curious.

A woman was with them, and we could see we were surrounded. "So, what do we have here?"

"Listen. Just walk towards me slowly. Don't let them touch you." Dad told her, but I could see she wasn't going anywhere. No one would willingly stand near metal men in this time.

"Oh, but they wouldn't hurt me, my fine boys. They are my knights in shining armour, quite literally." Lovely.

Dad couldn't stop trying. "Even if they've converted you, that's not a Cyber speech pattern. You've still got free will. I'm telling you, step away."

She smiled at him, her dark eyes full of wonder at what they were supposedly doing for her. I didn't understand how people could want a way off this planet. "There's been no conversion, sir. No one's ever been able to change my mind. The Cybermen offered me the one thing I wanted. Liberation."

"Who are you?"

"You can be quiet." She snapped at Rosita, and I readied myself to attack someone. "I doubt he paid you to talk. More importantly, who are you, sir, with such intimate knowledge of my companions."

Dad glared at her now. "I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter Callie."

The Cybermen didn't agree. "Incorrect. You do not correspond to our image of the Doctor, and the Doctor's daughter is deceased." Really? I was stood right here.

"Yeah, but that's because your database got corrupted." I told them, correcting the data, adding myself before throwing it to the thing. "Oh, look, look, look. Check this. The Doctor's and his daughters infostamp.Plug it in. Go on. Download."

"The core has been damaged. This infostamp would damage Cyberunits."

"Oh, well. Nice try, CJ." Dad sighed as it was repaired, and they realised who we were. "Hello."

"You will be deleted."

I was moved behind him, and dad stood taller. "No, no. Oh, but let me die happy. Tell me, what do you need those children for?"

The woman seemed confused by what was being said, like it was obvious. "What are children ever needed for? They're a workforce."

"But for what?"

"Very soon now, the whole Empire will see. And they will bow down in worship."

He nodded a little, reasoning it out. "And it's all been timed for Christmas Day. Was that your idea, Miss ?"

"Hartigan." The woman supplied when dad asked. "Yes. The perfect day for a birth, with a new message for the people. Only this time, it won't be the words of a man."

I spoke up from behind dad. "The birth of what?"

"A birth, and a death. Namely, yours. Thank you, Doctor, Calliope. I'm glad to have been part of your very last conversations. Now, delete them."

They stepped forward, but Jackson Lake came to our rescue, destroying them with infostamps. "At your service, Doctor, Miss Callie."

Miss Hartigan started shouting, but I pulled dad away, shouting at everyone to run, though Rosita paused to punch the lady in the face, before we had to stop in an alley to let the men catch their breaths. I loved running. "That stronghold down by the river. We need to find a way in."

"I'm ahead of you. My wife and I were moving to London so I could take up a post at the university. And while my memory is still not intact, this was in the luggage. The deeds. Fifteen Latimer Street. And if I discovered the Cybermen there, in the cellar, then-"

Awesome. "That might be our way in. Brilliant."

"There's still more." He said before dad and I started to run again. "I remember the cellar and my wife, but I swear there was something else in that room. If we can find that, perhaps that's the key to defeating these invaders. So, onwards!"

The cellar wasn't far away, and there was a Cyberman that was quickly destroyed before we ran to a high tech machine in the middle of the room. "It must've been guarding this. A Dimension Vault. Stolen from the Daleks again." More of the shitty pepper pots stuff, great. "That's how the Cybermen travelled through time. Jackson, is this it? The thing you couldn't remember?"

Jackson shook his head. "I don't think so. I just can't see. It's like it's hidden."

Dad looked up from what he was doing. "Not enough power. Come on! Avanti!"

Next was into the sewers, that I let my skirt drag through easily, because I was sick of the thing by now, and Rosita wanted answers. "What do the Cybermen want?"

"They want us. That's what Cybermen are." I told her softly. "Human beings with their brains put into metal shells. They want every living thing to be like them."

And then we found the children, all working hard in a horrific machine that would only bring pain. "It's an engine. They're generating electricity, but what for?"

"Power at ninety percent" dad told me, holding my arm tight. "But if we stop the engine, the power dies down, the Cybermen'll come running. Ooo. Hold on. Power fluctuation. That's not meant to happen."

I opened my colours wider, seeing the power flowing in different directions all around, but occasionally it would go somewhere else. "It's going wrong. Like, like the software is rewriting itself. Changing, moving, growing. It's sentient."

And the the control panel went bang, and I closed my eyes quickly to stop them being blinded, dad covering my eyes. "Whoa! What the hell's happening? It's out of control."

"It's accelerating. Ninety six percent, ninety seven." I told him, seeing the numbers without looking. "The who place is singing with it."

"When it reaches a hundred, what about the children?"

Just the right question, Rosita. "They're disposable. Come on!"

A klaxon sounded as we reached the bottom, and Lake and Rosita worked on destroying the Cybermen. "Right. Now, all of you, out! Do you hear me? That's an order! Every single one of you, run! Come on, Little Loves, leg it!" I shouted, helping kids to get down from the machines. "Rosita, get them out of sluice gate. Once you're out, keep running. Far as you can! Come on, come on, come on."

She got them moving, and we kept chasing the kids out, before I looked around to see Jackson staring at a young boy trapped up high. "That's my son. My son. Doctor, Callie, my son!"

"What?"

"They took my son. No wonder my mind escaped. Those damned Cybermen, they took my child! But he's alive, Doctor. Frederick!" You poor man...

I went to climb up to him. "Come on!"

"No, he's too scared. Stay there! Don't move! I'm coming." But an explosion knocked him down. "I can't get up there. Fred!"

"They've finished with the motor." I shouted at him, seeing the dark blue rumble of what was going on. "It's going to blow up."

"What are we going to do, Callie, Doctor? What are we going to do?"

I drew the cutlass dad had at the house, and grinned. "Come on, Jackson. You know me." Then I grabbed a rope, unravelling it with sound before it went up, getting it to land on the platform by the boy. "Oh, that's it. Hello, my name's Callie, sweetheart." I put him onto my hip, holding him tight. "Now, hold on tight. Don't let go." Then we swung back down, and gave the small oneback to his father. "Merry Christmas."

At which point dad grabbed me, carrying me as we ran back to their house. "Head for the street."

"Come on, Doctor. Hurry up!" They called, but he grabbed something, me still on his back as we went.

And over the street, there was a massive steampunk Cyberman over London, so big that the skies bent around it. "It's a CyberKing." I breathed, knowing it on sight. I had to fight so many of these in the parallel universe. "It's a ship. Dreadnought class. Front line of an invasion. And inside the chest, a Cyberfactory, ready to convert millions." I looked at the man, holding his kid close."Just head south. Take him south. Go to the parkland."

"But where are you going?!"

"To stop that thing." We shouted, dad putting me down. "Jackson, you've got your son. You've got a reason to live. I'm not a kid, I know the risk. Dad couldn't stop me if he tried."

So then we were running, grabbing things we needed to go up in the balloon, before Jed turned up. "Oh, good man. Jed, wasn't it? Jed, I need your help!"

"I'm not going out there."

Right, how much did I have in my purse... "I'll give you five pound notes."

Which got his attention. "Er. All right. What do you want me to do?"

"The TARDIS is going to fly." I grinned, cutting my skirts shorter to actually fit into the basket of the balloon as dad put on another bandolier of infostamps.

He did as we said, but stared at us as we jumped into the basket. "You're flaming bonkers. Begging your pardon, Miss." Oh shut up.

"It's been said before. Now give me." He handed dad the Dimnsion thingy, resonating at a bright, bright pastel colour that faded to blue each time it reached a little distance away from itself. "Not enough power. Come on! Jed, let her loose."

"Ever flown one of these before?"

"Nope, never. Sonic manipulations can help our directions."

He paused for a moment. "Can I have my money now?"

"Oh, get on with it."

He untied it all, and we floated up, throwing out sandbags to get the balloon to go faster. When we reached the right height, the CyberKing turning to see us. "Excellent. The Doctor. Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night. Even your daughter is submissive against you, with her great power."

I sat on the end of the basket, reaching out to her. "Miss Hartigan? We're offering you a choice. You might have the most remarkable mind this world has ever seen. Strong enough to control the Cybermen themselves."

"I don't need you to sanction me." She smiled.

"No, but such a mind deserves to live." Dad shouted next. "The Cybermen came to this world using a Dimension vault. I can use that device to find you a home, with no people to convert, but a new world where you can live out your mechanical life in peace."

"I have the world below, and it is abundant with so many minds ready to become extensions of me. Why would I leave this place?"

You stupid woman. "Because if you don't, we'll have to stop you. Please, Miss Hartigan."

"What do you make of me, sir, young Miss? An idiot?"

"No. The question is, what do you make of me?" Dad asked, pulling me back into the basket as we told them to kill us. "You make me into this, in front of my Callie."

And then he grabbed the infostamps into her before I could, and she just sat there smiling sweetly. "Then I have made you a failure, in front of your child. Your weapons are useless, sir."

You stupid woman. "He wasn't trying to kill you. All it did was break the Cyber-connection, leaving your mind open. Open, I think, for the first time in far too many years. So you can see. Just look at yourself. Look at what you've done." Her eyes returned to normal, and the Cybermen were staring at her. "I'm sorry, Miss Hartigan, but look at what you've become." Then she screamed, electricity dancing around the whole thing before they all exploded, even her.

Which lead to the part of the plan I didn't understand, how the hell were we going to stop it from falling and crushing even more people to death? Until dads gizmo beeped. "Ooo, now you're ready." Then he aimed it at the CyberKing, swirls of energy surrounding it, dragging it back into the papery white of the Void.

At which point I could hear the gold and purple cheers and applause below us, everyone knowing who we were as we did it. We waved back, and dad rang the bell, sending sparks of little silver stars into the night until we landed, going back to the market place to find Jackson and Frederick. "The city will recover, as London always does. Though the events of today will be history, spoken of for centuries to come."

"Yeah. Funny that." I muttered, knowing it didn't happen like that. How did they forget a CyberKing?

"And a new history begins for me." The man sighed, looking at Rosita and Fred, playing. "I find myself a widower, but with my son and with a good friend."

Rosita was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. "Now, take care of that one. She's marvellous."

"Frederick will need a nursemaid and I can think of none better." Jackson agreed. "But you're welcome to join us. We thought we might all dine together at the Traveller's Halt. A Christmas feast in celebration, and in memory of those we have lost. You won't stay?"

Um, didn't really eat publically. "Like I said, you know us."

He watched us for a moment carefully. "No I don't think anyone does. Especially not your daughter."Then saw the real TARDIS underneath the archway. "Oh!And this is it. Oh! Oh, if I might, Doctor, Miss Callie. One last adventure?"

Now, that would be fun. "Oh, be my guest."

He walked inside, and his shock was brilliant. "Oh. Oh my word. Oh. Oh, goodness me. Well. But this is, but this is nonsense."

"Well, that's one word for it."

"Complete and utter, wonderful nonsense. How very, very silly. Oh, no. I can't bear it. Oh, it's causing my head to ache. No. No, no, no, no, no, no" And then he ran back out. "Oh! Oh, gracious. That's quite enough. I take it this is goodbye."

I nodded, holding the tatters of my skirt. "Onwards and upwards."

"Tell me one thing. All those facts and figures I saw of the Doctor's life, you were never alone. All those bright and shining companions, before and after Calliope. But not any more?" Dad shook his head. "Might I ask why not?"

"They leave." He told him softly, putting a hand on my shoulder, more for his own support. "Because they should. Or they find someone else. And some of them, some of them forget me. I suppose in the end, they break my hearts."

Jackson looked at him for a moment. "That offer of Christmas dinner. It's no longer a request, it's a demand. In memory of those we've lost."

"Oh, go on then." I sighed. "Well, as long as I get some wine."

"Really?"

Dad nodded now, holding me closer. "Just this once. You've actually gone and changed my mind, well, Callie's mind, which is saying something. She said yes to food. Not many people can do that. Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you."

Jackson grinned. "The feast awaits. Come with me. Walk this way."

"We certainly will. Merry Christmas to you, Jackson." I laughed.

"Merry Christmas indeed, Doctor and Miss Callie."


	25. Pretty Dangerous

The Doctor:

The bus. What was the point in the bus? I hated it, and Callie hated how they smelt, and I agreed. "You're just in time, mate." The driver told me as I put the psychic paper on the thingy, before moving off to let Callie put on a card and sonic it with her hand.

The doors closed, and the bus moved off as I sat next to some random woman, Calliope behind us, grabbing a piece of Easter egg. "Hello, I'm the Doctor, this is Callie. Happy Easter." I smiled, eating some of the chocolate myself. "The funny thing is, I don't often do Easter. I can never find it. It's always at a different time. Although I remember the original. Between you and me, what really happened was."

Callie's machine beeped, and I reached to grab it, handing the random woman the egg. "Oh. Sorry, hold on to that for me. Actually, go on, have it. Finish it. It's full of sugar and I'm determined to keep these teeth. Plus, Cal is already hyper."

"Ah. Oh, we've got excitation." My little girl laughed, seeing how it was lit up. "We're picking up something very strange."

"I know the feeling." The woman muttered.

Callie was still hyperly chatting. She ate 3 easter eggs. "Rhondium particles, that's what we're looking for. This thing detects them. Look, this should to round, that little dish there."

The lady I was sat next to wasn't having fun. "Right now, a way out would come in pretty handy. Can you detect me one of those?"

I flicked the dish, and it finally started spinning. "Ah, the little dish is going round."

"Fascinating."

"And round. Whoa." Callie muttered as it sparked into a blonde womans hair, making her glare at me as I was the one holding it. "Sorry. That was my little dish."

The dark haired lady next to me wasn't happy. "Can't you turn that thing off?"

"What was your name?" Callie asked her.

"Christina."

"Christina, hold on tight." I told her, my daughter closing her eyes, holding on tight to the rail. "Everyone, hold on!" Then we were thrown, Callie screaming more than anyone, as though she was in pain, until it stopped, golden light shining in. I went right outside, the other woman following me, leaving Callie on the bus. "End of the line. Call it a hunch, but I think we've gone a little bit further than Brixton."

More people then followed us out, not Cal, but she was probably adjusting to the different sonic frequencies of the planet. It's why she screamed, the sound and light in her head. "It's impossible. There are three suns. Three of them." The blonde woman breathed, staring at them.

Another young black man now, like nearly everyone was out of the bus. "Like when all those planets were up in the sky."

"But it was Earth that moved back then, wasn't it?"

"Oh, man, we're on another world."

The driver shook his head, looking back at the bus. "It's still intact, though. Not as bad as it looks, and the chassis's still holding together. My boss is going to murder me."

Blonde woman stared at him. "Can you still drive it?"

"Oh no, no, no. The wheels are stuck. Look at them, they're never going to budge."

Christina dug in her back for a moment, pulling out some sunglasses. "Ready for every emergency."

I sonicked my spectacle lenses black and examined the sand grains. "Me too."

"And what's your name? Plus your daughter, back in the bus."

"I'm the Doctor, she's Calliope Jace, CJ or Callie."

The girl frowned a little. "Name, not rank."

Really? "The Doctor."

"Surname?"

"The Doctor. Callie uses Smith, bog standard."

She still wasn't getting it. "You're called the Doctor?"

"Yes, I am." I agreed, holding a palmful of the sand. "Funny sort of sand, this. There's a trace of something else." At which point I tasted it. "Glah. Not good."

Christina frowned a little. "Well, it wouldn't be. It's sand."

Wait... I knew that... "No, it tastes like. Never mind."

"What is it? What's wrong?"

One of the younger guys came over, looking at me. "Hold on a minute. I saw you, mate. You and your kid had that thing, that machine. Did you make this happen?"

Perfect, absolutely perfect. "Oh, humans on buses, always blaming me, and now Callie. Look, look, if you must know, I was tracking a hole in the fabric of reality. Call it a hobby. But it was a tiny little hole. No danger to anyone. Suddenly it gets big, and we drive right through it."

"But then where is it?" The Driver asked incredulously. "There's nothing. There's just sand."

Stupid humans. "All right. You want proof? We drove through this." I threw a pile of sand through it, a wibbly thing appearing in the air. "A door. A door in space."

"So what you're saying is, on the other side of that is home? We can get to London through there?" The driver asked, heading for it.

"The bus came through, but we can't."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" But it was too late, and he went through, screaming before burning into a pile of bones.

"He was a skeleton, man. He was bones. Just bones."

I was not, repeat not, losing anyone else! "It was the bus. Look at the damage. That was the bus protecting us. Great big box of metal."

"Rather like a Faraday cage?" Christina asked. Huh, right.

"Like in a thunderstorm, yeah? Safest place is inside a car, because the metal conducts the lightning right through." We looked at another young lad, maybe around Callie's age. "We did it in school."

Christina shook her head a little. "But if we can only travel back inside the bus? A Faraday cage needs to be closed. That thing's been ripped wide open."

"Well, slightly different dynamics with a wormhole. There's enough metal to make it work, I think. I hope." Callie should be out here by now...

"Then we have to drive five tons of bus, which is currently buried in the sand, and we've got nothing but our bare hands. Correct?"

Then a familiar figure appeared in the door, her leather jacket pulled close around her. "I'd say nine and a half tons, but the point still stands, yes. Sorry, my head, not great with the scenery change." Why were you still so pale from it?

Christina started to speak again as I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Then we need to apply ourselves to the problem with discipline. Which starts with appointing a leader."

Brilliant. "Yes. At last. Thank you. So."

"Well, thank goodness you've got me. Everyone do exactly as I say. Inside the bus immediately."

"Is it safe in there?"

She shook her head. "I don't think anything's safe any more, but if it's a choice between baking in there or roasting out here, I'd say baking is slower. Come on. All of you. Right now. And you. The Doctor with your daughter Callie."

"Yes, ma'am."

But after about 10 minutes, and point 5, of her being in charge, I wasn't overly happy with how in charge she was. "Point five. The crucial thing is, do not panic. Quite apart from anything else, the smell of sweat inside this thing is reaching atrocious levels. We don't need to add any more. Point six. Team identification. Names. I'm Christina. This man is apparently the Doctor, this is his daughter Calliope, but she calls herself Callie." We both waved. "And you?"

"Nathan."

"I'm Barclay."

"Angela. Angela Whittaker."

"My name's Louis. Everyone calls me Lou. And this is Carmen."

Christina was happy with this. "Excellent. Memorise those names. There might be a test." Seriously? "Point seven. Assessment and application of knowledge. Over to you, the Doctor."

Huh, what? "I thought you were in charge."

She smiled at me. "I am. And a good leader utilises her strength. You seem to be the brainbox. So, start boxing."

So Callie took my moment of silence to explain things herself. "Right. So, the wormhole. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just an accident."

"No, it wasn't. That thing, the doorway? Someone made it for a reason."

We both looked over at the couple at the back. "How do you know?"

Her husband put his hand on her knee. "She's got a gift. Ever since she was a little girl, she can just tell things. We do the lottery twice a week."

"You don't look like millionaires." Christina frowned.

"No, but we win ten pounds. Every week, twice a week, ten pounds. Don't tell me that's not a gift."

Now, that was interesting. "Tell me, Carmen. How many fingers am I holding up?"

I held them up behind my back. "Three." Changed it. "Four."

"How old is Callie, Carmen?"

"She's older than she looks. 50. Over 50, but she looks 17."

Now, that was clever. "Very good. Low level psychic ability, exacerbated by an alien sun. What can you see, Carmen? Tell me, what's out there?"

"Something, something is coming. Riding on the wind, and shining."

Callie frowned, her hand on her hip lightly. "What is it?"

The woman looked right at her. "Death. Death is coming."

Which sent everyone into a panic, obviously, and I had to have a quick natter with my daughter, who then started to sing, getting everyone's attention, all looking at her as she stopped. "All right now, stop it. Everyone, stop it! Angela, look at me. Angela? Angela? Answer me one question, Angela. That's it. At me, at me. There we go. Angela, just answer me one thing. When you got on this bus, where were you going?"

"Doesn't matter now, does it?"

She smiled a little. "Answer the question, love."

"Just home."

"And what's home?" I asked her.

Which really got her attention. "Me and Mike. And Suzanne. That's my daughter. She's eighteen. Yo, your age." Well, give or take about 40 years.

I nodded, moving onto the next person. "Suzanne. Good. What about you?"

"Don't know. Going round Tina's."

Which made Callie smile a little. "Who's Tina? Your girlfriend?"

And now he grinned. "Not yet."

Ha, brilliant. "Good boy. What about you, Nathan?"

"Bit strapped for cash. I lost my job last week. I was going to stay in and watch TV." Perfect night in.

"Brilliant. And you two?"

Lou frowned a little. "I was going to cook."

"It's his turn tonight." Carmen smiled. "Then I clear up."

Callie laughed a little. "What's for tea?"

"Chops. Nice couple of chops and gravy. Nothing special."

She smiled. "Oh, that's special, Lou. That is so special. Chops and gravy, mmm. Never used to like meat, but its great now. What about you, Christina?"

"I was going so far away."

Perfect, just what I needed. "Far away. Chops and gravy. Watching TV. Mike and Suzanne and poor old Tina." Barclay got offended. "Just think of them. Because that planet out there, all three suns, wormholes and alien sand, that planet is nothing. You hear me? Nothing, compared to all those things waiting for you. Food and home and people. Hold on to that, because we're going to get there. I promise. We're going to get you home."

So we got to work, and Nathan and Barclay started to fetch seats from the bus, taking them out to the desert. "Here we go."

"That's my boys."Callie smiled as shee leant against the bus, her hand still on her side. Oh god, what happened, was it the planet, did it still hurt her? "See, we lay a flat surface between the bus and the wormhole, like duckboards, and we reverse into it."

"Let some air out of the tyres. Just a little bit. It spreads the weight of the bus, gives you more grip against the sand." Christy told them, and we both looked at her carefully. "Holidays in the Kalahari."

Barclay shook his head a little. "Yeah, but those wheels go deep."

"Then start digging."

"With what?"

At which point she pulled a spade out of her bag, and I passed it to Barclay. "With this."

Seriously? "Got anything else in there?"

"Try that. It might help with the seats." An axe. Seriously?

Then Angela stuck her head out the bus."I can't find the keys."

Cal shook her head, long dark waves shaking slightly. "Oh no, buses don't have keys. There's a master switch, then it's one button to start, the other one to stop, yeah? I got stuck on a bus once, learnt to drive them."

"Right. Hold on. Oh, I've got it. Here we go. Hold tight. Ding, ding." Then she started the engine, but it just ground itself and turned off.

"Ooo, that doesn't sound too good." We both muttered, and went to look at the smoking engine at the back. "Oh, never mind losing half the top deck. You know what's worse? Sand. Tiny little grains of sand. The engine's clogged up."

"Anyone know mechanics?"

Barclay put his hand up. "Me. I did a two week NVQ at the garage. Never finished it, but-"

Better than nothing. "Off you go, then. Try stripping the air filter. Fast as you can. Back in two ticks. Come on, Cal."

"Wait a minute. You're the pair with all the answers." Christina called, running after us. "I'm not letting you two out of my sight."

"Easier if you left that backpack behind."

"Where I go, it goes."

Because that wasn't ominous. "A backpack with a spade and an axe. Christina, who's going so far away, and yet scared by the sound of a siren. Who are you?"

She raised her eyebrows. "You can both talk. Let's just say we're three equal mysteries."

"We make quite a couple." I laughed, putting my hand on my daughters shoulder. "Even with the kid sidekick."

"I'm not a kid, nor your side kick, im your daughter."

Christina agreed with that. "We don't make any sort of couple, thank you very much. Come on then. Tell me. If Carmen's right, if that wormhole's not an accident, then what is it? Has someone done this on purpose?"

Calliope shook her head. "I don't know, but every single instinct of mine is telling me to get off this planet right now. I really don't feel so good." I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. She was freezing.

"And do you think we can?"

"I live in hope."

She smiled a little at us. "That must be nice. It's Christina de Souza. To be precise, Lady Christina de Souza."

"Ooo, that's handy, because I'm a Lord, same with Callie."

"Seriously? The Lord and Lady of where?"

Cal smiled a little, her face very pale, even in the golden sunlight. "It's quite a big estate."

"No, but there's something more about you. That device you were carrying, and the wormhole. The way your singing got everyone to shut up, Callie. Like you knew. And the way you stride around this place, like.Like you're not quite-"

Which was where we didn't want to go. "Anyway, come on. Allons-y."

"Oui, mais pas si nous allons vers un cauchemar." Oh, now she was good.

"Oh, we were made for each other." Callie laughed as we crested another dune, and her eyes found the storm ahead of us, like she was following every sound. "Ah, don't like the look of that."

Christina frowned a little. "Storm clouds. Must be hundreds of miles away."

Not far enough. "But getting closer."

"If that's a sand storm, we'll get ripped to shreds."

Cal shook her head, twisting her long brown hair up into a bun on top of her head. "It's a storm. Who says it's sand?" And then she collapsed, and I grabbed her to stop her hitting the sand hard. "OK, really not feeling good now..."

I moved her hand away from her side, and saw that it was red with blood, soaking through her dark blue vest, and when I moved it aside, I saw that there was safety glass embedded in her skin, not deep, but worrying. It may not be sharp, the safety glass of the bus, but at high velocity, it would still go deep. "Callie! Oh God, Callie!" I cried, taking out the sonic to remove the pieces, her skin swollen and encrusted with sand. "You should of told me!"

"You would have worried, like you are now. It doesn't hurt."

That was even more worrying. "Because you're in shock. Christina, got a first aid kit in that bag of yours?"

With that the woman took over, moving me aside as I lay her down on my coat, and she carefully moved her shirt to wipe the wound clean and start doing field stitches. How did she have that good a first aid kit with her, unless she was expecting to use it? After that, I picked her up, running back to the bus to phone in what was going on.

Barclay was the only one with a phone, and after a quick issue with calling for pizza first, I got through to UNIT. "This is the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Please select one of the following four options. If you want to-"

Not that that helped.

"Oh, I hate these things."

"If you keep your finger pressed on zero, you get through to a real person." Angela told me quickly. "I saw it on Watchdog."

Brilliant. "Thank you, Angela."

"UNIT helpline. Which department would you like?"

"Listen, it's the Doctor. It's me and my daughter Callie."

And then we were put on hold with some really annoying music, before a woman picked up the line again. "Doctor? Jace? This is Captain Erisa Magambo. Might I say, sir, Miss, it's an honour."

It sounded like she self concussed when she did that. "Did you just salute? Oh, and her name is Callie.

Another brief pause. "No." Liar.

Callie laughed a little, sat across me on the seat, a thick white bandage over her stitches. "Erisa, it's about the bus. HQ said you're at the tunnel, yeah?"

"And where are you both?"

"We're on the bus." She replied, taking a tissue from Angela to wipe the blood off her hands. "Ta, love. But apart from that, not a clue, except it's very pretty and pretty dangerous."

"A body came through here. Have you sustained any more fatalities?"

I shook my head, even though she couldn't actually see me. "No, and we're not going to. Callie got hurt in the travel, but we've patched her up for now. We're stuck, though. We haven't got the TARDIS, and I need to analyse that wormhole."

"We have a scientific advisor on site. Doctor Malcolm Taylor." Cool name, Malcolm. "Just the man you need. He's a genius."

Uh, we were the geniuses here. "Oh, is he? We'll see about that." And then I could hear them talking, and saying how the day I met them would probably be the end, which wasn't all that nice, but I didn't think they could hear me. "I can hear everything you're saying."

"Hello, Doctor? Miss Calliope?" Why was it always Miss Calliope, or Miss Callie? "Oh, my goodness!"

"Yes, we are. Hello, Malcolm." Cal laughed, shaking her head, looking a little better now the bleeding was stopped.

"The Doctor, and his little girl. Cor blimey. I can't believe I'm actually speaking to you both. I mean, I've read all the files."

Seriously? "Really? What was your favourite, the giant robot?" Callie raised her eyebrow at me. "No, no, hold on. Let's sort out that wormhole. Excuse me. Malcolm, something's not making sense here. We've got a storm and a wormhole, and I can't help thinking there's a connection. I need a complete full range analysis of that wormhole. The whole thing."

"Well, I've probably got the wrong idea, but I've wired up an integrator. I thought it could measure the energy signature."

Callie rolled her eyes. "No. No, no, no, no, no. That'll never work. Listen. I'm the good one when it comes to energy and patterns-"

But Malcolm interjected. "It's quite extraordinary, though. I'm measuring an oscillation of fifteen Malcolms per second."

"Fifteen what?" We questioned together, staring at the phone.

He sounded a little sheepish. "Fifteen Malcolms. It's my own little term. A wavelength parcel of ten kilohertz operating in four dimensions equals one Malcolm."

You had to be kidding me. "You named a unit of measurement after yourself?"

"Well, it didn't do Mister Watt any harm." Or Mr Newton. "Furthermore, one hundred Malcolms equals a Bernard."

My daughter wasn't impressed. "And who's that, your dad?"

"Don't be ridiculous. That's Quatermass."

Oh, this was taking far too long. "Right. Fine. But before we die of old age, which in our case would be quite an achievement, so congratulations on that, is there anyone else I can talk to?"

Malcolm spoke quickly. "No, no, no, no, but listen. I set the scanner to register what it can't detect and inverted the image."

Which got Callie's attention, making her sit up straighter, even though she hissed in pain. "You did what?"

"Is that wrong?"

"No. Malcolm, that's brilliant. So you can actually measure the wormhole. Okay. I admit that is genius. Now, run a capacity scan. I need a full report." She told me. "Also, there should be a programme on your system, I made it. It'll tell me the colour of it, this planet is messing me up, the colours are all wrong. Call me back when you've done it. And Malcolm? You're our new best friend."

Then she hung up, and tried to get up, managing it as we headed out into the desert again. "Barclay, we're holding on to this."

"Hey, you'd better bring it back."

We passed Nathan again as we walked back out, and went back up to the top of the dune, taking photos of the approaching storm. "Send these back to Earth. See if Malcolm can analyse the storm." Callie muttered, breathing shallowly. She should have stayed behind. And then she narrowed her eyes a little. "There's something in those clouds. Something shining. Look. Like metal. Why would there be metal in a storm? It's glinting red, horrible."

"Did you hear something?" Christina asked, but I brushed her off, until we saw an alien with multifaceted eyes watching us.

The alien, a biped with an insect head, chittered and pointed a weapon, and I replied in clicks and chitters. "That's wait. I shout wait, people usually wait."

"You speak the language?"

"Every language." Callie agreed, as I kept chittering. "That's begging for mercy, nice one, dad."

The alien gestured with its weapon. "That means move."

Nice. "Ooo, you're learning."

"These fly things, they must be responsible." She said as we were lead through the desert. "They brought us here."

Why were they getting the blame? Besides, their ship was wrecked. "No, no, no, no, no. Look at the ship. It's a wreck. They crashed, just like us."

The inside wasn't as bad, but Callie was shivering like mad the moment we got in there. "Oh, but this place is freezing. The hull's made of photafine steel. Turns cold when it's hot. Boiling desert outside, freezing ship inside. Since we met you, Christina, we've been through all the extremes."

"That's how I like things, extreme." Oh, I bet you did.

At which point I got all fanboy over the works. "Oh, this is beautiful. Intact, it must have been magnificent. A proper streamlined deep spacer."

Christina rolled her eyes. "I'll remember that as I'm being slowly tortured. At least I'm bleeding on the floor of a really well designed spaceship."

Two aliens chittered at us. One of them touched a round purple device on his overall. "Oh, right, good. Yes. Hello. That's a telepathic translator. He can understand us."

"Still sounds like gibberish to me."

Callie frowned a little. "That's what he said. He can understand us. It doesn't work the other way round." And then she started translating. "You will suffer for your crimes, etcetera. You have committed an act of violence against the Tritovore race. Tritovores. They're called Tritovores. You came here in the two hundred to destroy us. Sorry, what's the two hundred?"

"It's the bus. Number two hundred. They mean the bus." Ohh, right.

"Oh. No, look, I think you're making the same mistake Christina did. I'm the Doctor, by the way, and my daughter, Calliope, Callie. This is Christina. The Honourable Lady Christina. At least I hope she's honourable." There was still something she wasn't telling us. "We got pulled through that wormhole. The two hundred doesn't look like that normally. It's broken, just the same as you."

The alien lowered his weapon. "What are they doing?"

"They believe me."

Which confused even Callie. "What, as simple as that?"

Really? "I've got a very honest face, love. And the translator says I'm telling the truth. Plus the face."

She rolled her eyes, clicking her fingers. "Right. So, first things first. There's a very strange storm heading our way. Can you send out a probe? Oh, they've lost power. Hmm, the crash knocked the mainline crystallography out of synch. But if I can jiggle it back." She opened her mouth, letting out small song that then brought the entire thing back to life. My clever Callie. "I thank you. Yes, I am. Frequently. Okey doke, let's launch that probe."

Then we looked at an image that zoomed in to the planet. "The Scorpion Nebula. We're on the other side of the universe. Just what you wanted. So far away. The planet of San Helios."

"And that's us?" Christina asked. "We're on another world."

"We have been for quite a while." Cal pointed out.

She shook her head. "I know, but seeing it like that."

I beamed at her. "It's good, isn't it?"

"Wonderful." Christina agreed.

"The Tritovores were going to trade with San Helios." Callie interjected. "Population of one hundred billion. Plenty of waste matter for them to absorb."

Which made the other woman wrinkle her nose. "By waste matter, you mean-"

Cal shrugged. "They feed off what others leave behind from their behind, if you see what I mean. It's perfectly natural. They are flies, we've met creatures that live off exhaust fumes." The parallel earth had Macra then.

"Charming. Just remind me never to kiss them."

Then there was a bustling metropolis on the screen. "San Helios City."

"That's amazing. But you've seen this sort of thing before, haven't you? Those Lordship of yours. The Lord and Lady of where, exactly?"

"Of Time. I come from a race of people called Time Lords, Calliope is the first and only ever hybrid of Time Lord and human."

"You're alien?"

"Yeah." I agreed. "But you don't have to kiss me either, and I'd rather you didn't kiss Callie."

"You look human."

We came first. "You look Time Lord." Our lips were just a little away from each other.

Which Callie obviously didn't like. "Anyway."

"So if that's San Helios, all we need to do is find that city. They can help us."

But Cal's shook her head. "I don't think it's that simple. We're in the city right now. The same colours, the same noises, built into the sand. The city, the oceans, the mountains, the wildlife, and a hundred billion people turned to sand. All those voices in Carmen's head. She's hearing them die, which is why I can't see the colours properly, the screams are messing with me."

Which completely grossed out Christy. "But I've got sand in my hair. That's dead people. Oh, that's disgusting. Oh."

Then the phone rang, Callie putting it on speaker. "Malcolm, tell me the bad news.

"Oh, you are clever. It is bad news. It's the wormhole, Doctor, Callie. It's getting bigger. We've gone way past 100 Bernards. I haven't invented a name for that." Maybe a Callie?

"How can it get bigger by itself?" I asked, sonicking Cal to make sure she wasn't getting an infection where the glass had been embedded. I mean, public transport.

"Well, that's why I'm phoning. You'll work it out, if I know you, sir, Miss."

The I heard the solider again. "Doctor, Callie, we estimate the circumference of your invisible wormhole is now four miles, heading upwards. I've grounded all flights above London. We can't risk anyone else falling through."

Callie gave a short nod, pushing me away when I started mothering. "Good work, both of you. Dad, leave it, I'm fine."

She wasn't finished. "But I have to know. Does that wormhole constitute a danger to this planet?"

And then the phone beeped. "Oh, sorry. Call waiting. Got to go." I swapped calls over. "Yeah?"

"Doctor, it's Nathan. We got those duckboard things down, but-" Someone else spoke. "No, it's not. Don't say that."

"Why, what's happened?" Callie asked, frowning at the phone.

"We kept on turning the engine, but, we're out of petrol. Used it all up. Even if we can get those wheels out, this bus is never going to move."

Crap, crap, crap, crap. "What is it, what's wrong? Dad, tell me."

"You promised you'd get us home. Doctor? Callie? Are you still there?"

I was too distracted, the Tritovores speaking. "It's the probe. It's reached the storm."

Callie's dark eyes hardened a little. "It's not a storm. It's a swarm. Millions of them. Billions. Oh, we've lost the probe. I think it got eaten. Everything on this planet gets eaten."

"How far away is that swarm?"

"A hundred miles." I replied, calculating it in my head. "But at that speed, it'll be here in twenty minutes. No, no, no, they're not just coming for us. They want the wormhole."

Christina stared at me. "They're heading for Earth?"

Callie shook her head, moving to a small monitor. "Show the analysis. Incredible. They swarm out of a wormhole, strip the planet bare, then move on to the next world. Start the life cycle all over again."

"So, they make the wormholes? But how? They don't exactly look like technicians. And if the wormhole belongs to them, why are they a hundred miles away?"

"Because they need to be?" I suggested, then disproved it. "No, that's bonkers. Hang on. Yes. Oh, do you see? Billions of them, flying in formation, all around the planet. Round and round and round, faster and faster and faster, till they generate a rupture in space. The speed of them, and the numbers, and the size, all of that rips the wormhole into existence."

"And the wormhole's getting bigger?"

My daughter nodded. "Because they're getting closer. See the exoskeleton. They've got bones of metal. They eat metal and extrude it into the exoskeleton. So their velocity makes the wormhole, then their body makes it safe. Perfect design."

Our new friend was staring at us. "Those things are going to turn the entire Earth into a desert. So why exactly are you both smiling?"

"Worse it gets, the more I love it."

"Me too." She grinned. "The thing is, Doctor, little Callie, you're missing the obvious. We came here through the wormhole, yes? But our Tritovore friends didn't. They came here to trade with San Helios. Therefore, the question is, why did they crash?"

Cal raised an eyebrow. "Ah, good question. What a team. Like she said, why did you crash?" Then they lead us to a large hole in the spaceship. Oh, yes. Gravity well. Look, goes all the way down to the engine. So what happened? He says the drive system stalled. Ten miles up, they fell out of the sky. But what caused that?"

He shrugged. "Which means no idea."

I nodded. "Yeah. But wait a minute. That's a crystal nucleus down there, yes? And it looks like it survived the crash. If the crystal's intact? Oh, yes. That's better than diesel."

"What, you can use the crystal to move the bus?" Christina asked.

Well, yeah. "I think so. The spaceship's a write-off, but the two hundred's small enough."

"How does a crystal drive a bus?"

"In a super clever outer-spacey way." I told her. "Just trust us. There's the crystal! It's fallen to the bottom of the well. Have you got access shafts? All frozen? Well, maybe I can open them. Ah! Internal comms. Put that on." I handed it to Christina. "You stay here. Keep an eye on the shaft. Tell me if anything happens."

I took my daughters hand, running with her back through the spaceship. "If we can use that sunlight to start the automatic maintenance. Christina? If you see a panel opening in that shaft, let me know."

"Nothing yet."

Damn. "Anything now?"

"Afraid not."

I started connecting various other cables together. "Any sign of movement?"

"Nope."

Tried a few more. "How's that?"

"Nothing."

OK, how about that? "Any result?"

"Not a dickie bird. So let me get this right. You need that crystal? Then consider it done."

"Why, what do you mean?" Callie asked, looking up. "Christina? Christina!"

We started running again, still hearing her. "The aristocracy survives for a reason. We're ready for anything." And we reached the room as she dove into the shaft.

Callie went on instinct to sonic the pulley. "Come on. Come on, come on, come on. That's better."

"I decide when I stop, thank you."

"You're about to hit the security grid, idiot. Look."

The woman sighed a little. "Excellent. So what do I do?"

My little one laughed a little. "Try the big red button."

"Well done."

"Now come back up. I can do that. I'm the lightest, fastest and-"

"You're also injured. I'll go slowly, don't worry."

Really? "Quite the mystery, aren't you? Lady Christina de Souza, carrying a winch in her bag."

"No stranger than you, spaceman. You and your spacedaughter."

Oh, Donna... "I had this friend, once. She called me spaceman."

The woman laughed. "And was she right? Do you zoom about the place in a rocket?"

Callie shrugged, holding her side lightly. She needed to stop running, it wouldn't heal. "Well, a little blue box. Travels in more than space. It can journey through time, Christina. Oh, the places we've been. World War One. Creation of the universe. End of the universe. The war between China and Japan. And the Court of King Athelstan in 924 AD." She bent down and took a goblet out of the rucksack. "But I don't remember you being there. So what are you doing with this?"

"Excuse me. A gentleman never goes through a lady's possessions."

"I didn't, she did. It's the Cup of Athelstan, given to the first King of Britain as a coronation gift from Hywel, King of the Welsh. But it's been held in the International Gallery for two hundred years, which makes you, Lady Christina, a thief. Not as good as Callie, but hey."

There was a glee in her voice. "I like to think I liberated it."

Cal rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you need the money."

"Daddy lost everything. Invested his fortune in the Icelandic banks."

Yeah, right. "No, no, no, no, no. If you're short of cash, you rob a bank. Stealing this? That's a lifestyle."

"I take it you disapprove?"

"Absolutely." Though I'd be a hypocrite."Except. That little blue box, I stole it from my own people. Long before Callie was born."

Christina laughed. "Good boy. You were right. We're quite a team." Something roared. "What the blazes was that?"

Callie's eyes widened. "We never did find out why the ship crashed. Christina, I think you should come back up."

"Too late. I can see it."

"Careful. Slowly." I told her, looking back at the Tritivores. "Have you got an open-vent system?" They chittered agreement. "I thought so."

Christina spoke up from the well. "What does that mean?"

"It's like when birds fly into the engines of an aircraft."

"One of the creatures."

Callie shook her head. "It got trapped in the vents, caused the crash. Christina, get out. Now!"

She hesitated for a moment. "It's not moving. I think it's injured."

"No, it's dormant because it's so cold down there, but your body heat is raising the temperature."

Which made her laugh more. "I tend to have that effect. Almost there."

"Not just the crystal. I need the whole bed, the plate thing."

"I've got it!"

Blue waves of sonic quickly came from Callie's hands as she started to pull her back up quickly, the stingray moving. "Come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on. It's going to eat its way up." And then she reactivated the security grid on her way up, stopping it dead. "Ooo, she's good." We grabbed her as she reached the top, the Tritovores chirping compliments. "That's it, that's it, that's it. We've got you. We've got you. Isn't she just."

Then we went back into the main room. "Commander?" Callie asked, her hand on her side. "Mission complete. Now, we've got to get back to the two hundred, all of us. Oh, don't be so daft. A captain can leave his ship, if there's a bus standing by."

Something banged. "What the hell was that? Is this place safe? It's the creature. It's not dead."

"Maybe you didn't hit just one of them. If you hit a swarm?" I asked, realising the ship design. "This ship's built inside a metal sleeve. They can move through the infrastructure, all around us. And those things wake up hungry. Commander, you've got to come with us right now."

"Come back to Earth. We'll find you a home."

"And that's the word of a lady." I told it. "Come on." One of the Tritovores went to a control panel, the stingray appearing and eating him. The Commander raised his weapon, but was then gone too. "There's nothing we can do. Run!"

I put my daughter on my back, holding her there as we started running, ignoring Malcolm as he tried to call us and reached the bus again. "At last." Nathan sighed. "Where've you been?"

"Get inside." I told Christina, setting down Callie and handed her half the clamps. "Get them sitting down. Now then, let's have a look."

"So what does that crystal do?"

Callie threw it behind her. "Oh, nothing. Don't need the crystal."

Which made her glare. "Oh, I risked my life for that."

I shook my head, attaching the clamps one side as CJ did the other. "No, no. You risked your life for these. The clamps. One on every wheel."

"But what are the clamps for? Do they turn the wheels?" Christina asked as we ran onto a bus, and Callie went to drive but I kicked her out the chair. Show me a licence, love.

"Yeah, something like that. I just need to fix this. Have you got a hammer in that bag?" She handed me one, and I passed my daughter the phone. "Press redial, put on speaker." She did as she was told. "Malcolm, it's us."

"I'm ready."

Wait, what? "Ready for what?

"I don't know. You tell me."

Oh, you were such a fangirl. "We're going to try to get back. But listen, there might be something following us. You need to close the wormhole."

"Would that be a compressed burst of feedback on a counter-oscillation, perchance?"

Callie stared at the phone. "Oh, Malcolm, you're brilliant. Wait till the colours are gold and purple, then it'll be good to go."

The the big boss lady came back. "Doctor, Callie. What sort of something? That wormhole is now measuring ten miles and growing. I need to know the exact nature of the threat."

"Sorry, got to go." Cal told her, hanging up. "Oh, it's not compatible, wrong colours. Bus, spaceship, spaceship, bus. You need to weld the two systems together."

Christina didn't look happy. "And how do you do that?"

Getting right to the point, Calliope took the cup out of the woman's bag. "Gold." And then used sound to make it crumple. "Hate me when it gets you home"

I took it, starting to weld into the works, then laughed with joy as it started working. "This is your driver speaking. Hold on tight."

"But what for? What's he doing?"

"Do as he says." Christina told them, then leant closer to me as Callie groaned in pain, holding her side. "What are you doing?"

"Come on. That's it. You can do it, you beauty. One last trip." I called, turning on the engine, the bus rising out of the sand into the air, everyone looking incredulously. "Anti-gravity clamps. Didn't I say? Round we go."

"Dad they're coming." Callie told me, leaning against the money tray. "I have a plan, if some follow us through."

I was pretty sure I wouldn't approve of that plan, but I went full throttle through the wormhole, everyone screaming as we went through, until we reached the other side, when the screams became laughs of joy. London.

But stingrays followed through, before Callie quickly tied herself to the metal bar near the door with a long rope from Christina's bag, and climbed onto the roof. Maybe she should have driven, if it would stop her doing stupid stuff. "CALLIE! Calliope, get back here!"

She didn't listen, and soon the stingrays dropped from her voice, loud and powerful, singing what sounded like a Black Veiled Brides song. Rebel Love Song.

"Malcolm, close that wormhole." I told him, trying to redial one handed.

"Yes, sir. My pleasure, sir."

Then the line went dead. "He's hung up on me." Then I redialed, he told me he was busy, and hung up again. So I called for a third time. "Malcolm, listen to me.

"It's not working." He told me as Callie came back in, smiling, but looking exhausted.

"We need that signal. We've got billions of those things about to fly through."

"Well, what do I do?"

I looked at Callie, who understood how the energy worked through their colours. "Loop it back through the integrator, and keep the signal ramping up. I'll tell you when to go, the colours around me will be red and blue."

He did as she said, and she shouted when it was time to press the button and the wormhole closed, making us cheer, and I hugged my daughter quickly, before putting my hands back on the wheel. She lost one family in an accident, we didn't need one at 1000ft. "Do not stand forward of this point. Ladies and gentlemen, you have reached your final destination. Welcome home, the mighty two hundred."

We landed, and I had to support Callie as we walked out, the bandage soaked through with blood as we got off the bus, bypassing the 'screening', that meant they kept an eye on everyone who'd been off planet without a passport, so to say. And then we finally met Malcolm.

He hugged us both, careful of Callie's side, and grinned. "Oh. Oh. I love you. I love you. I love you."

"To your station, Doctor Taylor." Another familiar voice told him.

"Yes, ma'am. I love you."

Then she smiled at us. "Doctor, Callie, I salute you whether you like it or not. Now, I take it we're safe from those things?"

My daughter shrugged. "They'll start again. Generate a new doorway. It's not their fault, it's their natural life cycle. But I'll see if I can nudge the wormholes on to uninhabited planets. Closer to home, Captain. Those two lads. Very good in a crisis. Nathan needs a job, Barclay's good with engines. You could do a lot worse. Privates Nathan and Barclay, UNIT's finest."

She smiled a little. "I'll see what I can do. And I've got something for you, not a moment too soon by the look of Cal." Yeah, she was a little trooper.

But she showed the TARDIS. "Better than a bus, any day. Hello."

"Found in the gardens of Buckingham Palace."

"Oh, she doesn't mind. She loves Callie." Who didn't?

"Now, I've got three sonically shattered alien stingrays to clear up. I don't suppose you fancy helping with the paperwork? Or explaining how singing could do that?"

"Not a chance."

"Till we meet again, Doctor, Little Callie."

Oh, she was good, I had to say. "I hope so."

And then Christina was back. "Little blue box, just like you said. Right then. Off we go. Come on, Doctor, Calliope Jace, show me the stars."

"No." She stared at me as CJ started shivering, her body trying to over compensate. "I said no."

"But I saved your life. And you saved mine. "We're surrounded by police. I'll go to prison." Your problem. "But you were right. It's not about the money. I only steal things for the adventure, and today with you. I want more days like this. I want every day to be like this. We're made for each other. You said so yourself. The perfect team. Why not?"

I shook my head sadly. "People have travelled with me and I've lost them. Lost them all. Never again. I am holding Callie so tight, and it would kill me to lose her."

And then she was gone, an officer taking her away for the theft, and Carmen came over. "Doctor, little Miss Callie? You take care now."

"You too." I smiled at her, Cal managing a wave. "Chops and gravy, lovely. Need the same for this one."

"No, but you be careful. Because your song is ending, sir. And there is no one singing louder than your daughter."

I stared at the woman, holding her tighter as she starting passing out. "What do you mean?"

Carmen watched us carefully. "It is returning. It is returning through the dark. And then, Doctor, Jaclyn? Oh, but then he will knock four times."

Then the woman walked on, and just as Christina was about to be put in the car, I undid her handcuffs, and she got right out the other side, going for the bus as she was chased, closing it after her. "I'd step back, if I were you." Callie smiled weakly, her eyes barely open. "Oh, and piss off."

"I'm charging you both too. Aiding and abetting."

Oh, too good to pass over. "Yes. I'll just step inside this police box and arrest myself and my daughter."

Then she started the bus and it went up, pausing next to us. "We could've been so good together."

"Christina, we were."

And then Callie passed out in my arms.


	26. That Warm Feeling

Jace-- (Sorry for two in a row, but it works :) )

"Stop this wedding now!" Dad shouted as we ran in together, everyone staring at us as Luke got to his feet. Huh, he, he was older now, about 16, just a little younger than me. He looked nerdy, geeky, but with really kind eyes. "I said, stop this wedding. Callie!"

A strong wind blew through the room, and I tried to counteract that. "Dad, it's not working!"

"Alert! Alert! Danger, Mistress!" K9 called, moving forward, towards her and the man she was with, Peter something.

"Stop! Get away from him!" I shouted, the glass behind her starting to splinter from my voice, the power still in there, even though I wasn't singing. Damn, this wasn't good, it was getting stronger again.

Sarah shook her head, trying to get to us, but her betrothed held her arm tight. "No! Peter, no!"

"Don't be afraid, Sarah Jane. It's the Angel." And then a faceless figure in white appeared, flicking as I tried to sing again, but the wind was crushing my vocal chords.

Luke tried to get to her now, fighting against the time waves that were pushing us back. "Mum! Mum!"

"Sarah!" We shouted together. "Trickster, let her go!"

"Too late, Time Lord and Lady." Ugh, I was so not a Lady, you should see me eat a Big Mac. "You're mine, Sarah Jane Smith. Mine forever."

No, no, no, no, not now! "Sarah! Sarah Jane!" I screamed, and she shouted back for us, but dad then pulled me back as my breath was taken away again, and everything went white. Great, my least favourite colour, er, shade. Damn, Girl Of Colours should know the difference between shades and colours. OK, even unconscious, I was sassing my own brain.

"Callie?" I heard someone ask hesitantly, shaking my shoulder. Hm, nice warm hands, really nice. "Callie, uh, it, it's Luke. Callie?"

Groaning, I sat up a little, until my forehead collided with his, making me drop back down. "Ow! Damn, ow, shit."

"Language, Calliope."

I opened my eyes again, seeing Luke's perfect blue ones looking down at me, a red mark on his forehead from where we headbutted each other. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." I muttered, blinking quickly, trying to get rid of the headache that the bright white the light of the room was giving me. "Nice to meet you in the Flesh, Luke, not so nice that they just connected very painfully."

He smiled a little at me, before realising that something was up. "What, what happened? Mum and the Trickster."

I put my hand on his arm as dad went around sorting out the other two kids. Clyde and Rani. "Luke, Luke, Luke, Luke, listen to me. Everything's going to be all right. We can find Sarah. I can bring her back. I promise. But we need you to be strong for us, just like you were before. I know you can do it." I smiled at him, and he managed to smile back at me. OK, he was seriously cute...

"Who are you two?" Clyde, unless he had a weird name for a guy.

"Hello, Clyde." Dad smiled, shaking his hand as the girl also sat up. "And that will be Rani."

That made him frown a little. "What? How'd you know my name? Who's the girl with Luke?"

Except Rani realised. "Wait a moment. You must be. It's you two, isn't it?"

"That's us." Dad agreed, not really paying attention to what was being said.

"The Doctor, and Jace, well Callie now." I liked Rani, she was fast, like, journalist fast.

Luke nodded, helping me get to my feet. "That's them."

Clyde shook his head a little as I brushed my hair off my face, seeing the soft pastel colours of their voices only temporarily filling the stark blankness of the room. "I hope you're both as good as Sarah Jane says you are."

That made me laugh, easily doing a cartwheel across the room. "Well, you know journalists, always exaggerating. But yeah, we're pretty amazing on a good day." I realised I was overly cocky, even if the cartwheel was a perfect ten. "Sorry, I'm not used to being this full of myself, but good to know that I still have some sort of humbleness. God knows dad doesn't."

"Thanks, Callie." Oh, so you were listening.

"Master, Mistress Calliope, query. Where is Mistress Sarah Jane?"

And now dad was completely engrossed in the dog. "K9! Did you miss me. Did you miss me, eh?"

"Repeat. Whereabouts of Sarah Jane? Where is she?" Good, at least he was on track.

Clyde frowned a little, facing out into the bright white of the windows. Damn that hurt. "Where are we?"

I pressed my hand to the still splintered glass, feeling out for what had happened. "There's been a dimensional shift. Time's moved on but us, and this entire building, we've been left behind. That's why it's white, why your voices keep fading, they're bleeding back into real time, not staying. No echoes."

"There's nothing out there."

"I said all along, I knew there was something wrong about all of this." The oldest human in the room, Clyde, told us. "And what exactly is going on?"

Which dad didn't help. "I'll explain later."

So all three spoke at once, the colours helping me, but the sounds not helping dad, so I started to sing, which silenced everyone, and they all stared. "Thank you, and yes, I have a hypnotic voice.Here's the answer to all your questions. Yes, that was the Trickster. Yes, we're trapped. Yes, dad and I the only ones who can get us out of the trap. Yes, we're going to bring Sarah Jane, and your mum and dad, and all the others back safe, but we can't do any of it without you."

The Bannerman Road gang stared at us. "You, you need us?"

"Just like Sarah Jane needs you." Dad agreed, putting a proud hand on my shoulder. Come on, I was 54, not really a little kid. To be fair, I did only feel about 17 again.

"My mum and dad, where are they?" Rani asked, hugging her arms around herself in the garish pink dress. Never been overly fond of the colour pink.

"Just go along with them, Rani. I saw them save the world."

I laughed at that, shaking my head as my long dark hair swished. "You helped us save the world, Lukey boy."

At which point dad took charge, taking his hands out of his pockets and turned towards the door. "Right. Come on, we can use the TARDIS. I assume everybody knows what the TARDIS is, unless you've really not been paying attention. And, allons-y!" And we ran there, but the space where the big blue box had landed was now empty. "Oh,no, no, no, no. It was there. It was right there."

There was then a noise, thick and viscous gold as she tried to break back through. "Wait, wait, wait."

"That noise." Rani realised. "I've heard it before."

"That was us, trying to break through." Dad replied, staring as she then started to get thrown back again. "Got knocked back by the Trickster."

K9 then told us why, well, Sarah Jane's lot, anyway. I understood the physics, it was easy. "Temporal schism is preventing TARDIS materialisation."

And now Clyde was skeptical. "Wait a minute. That's the TARDIS? It's just a wooden box."

"Come on, you can do it. More power. Come on!" Dad shouted, but she couldn't hold it, fading away. "Okay, got no TARDIS. It can't materialise here until time moves forward."

"What, so we're trapped here, wherever this is?"

I shook my head. "No. Because what have we got? We've got K9.And we've got you three. And any friend of Sarah Jane Smith is a friend of ours."

"But where is this?" Clyde asked as Luke moved closer to me, looking back at his friends from where I was stood. We both still had red marks on our heads from where we'd headbutted each other by accident. "What's happened to the rest of the world?"

"Our present location nowhere, no when." K9 told them, while I understood why the walls weren't resonating time as they were supposed to.

Luke frowned a little, looking at me. "No when?"

"Look at the clocks." Dad replied softly as I took off my cardigan, the leather jacket too hot for the weather. Except now it was roasting when I'd been cold all of five minutes ago. Strange.

"Time's stopped."

Clyde stared at us. "What? You're joking."

Dad shook his head now, looking as the second hand of the clock ticked backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards on the same second. "No. Time hasn't stopped. This second's on a loop. Twenty three seconds and twenty three minutes past three o'clock."

"And we're caught inside it." I agreed, pacing a little. "In this one second."

"But again, where is Sarah Jane?" Clyde pointed out. Oh, keep up, Lovey.

"I think she's right here."

Rani was pacing now too, following me a little in my haste. "So we've been kept behind in this second."

K9 moved forwards a little. "Affirmative Mistress Rani."

"But the rest of the world, Mum and Dad and everyone else, they've moved on from here, forwards in time. Why has the Trickster trapped us here?"

Dad shrugged distractedly, scanning for something. Not that he'd find anything, I'd already tried. "Oh, come on, Rani. You know the answer to that."

"We're Sarah Jane's friends, all of us. Her best friends." Penny in the air.

Come on, she had to get that. "Yeah. Which means?"

The penny dropped. "Hostages. He can use us to get at her."

"We've met the Trickster before, but we've never found out who he is."

Oh, I knew. I'd met his Beetle, the one who tried to undo everything Donna did for dad after losing me. That hadn't been fun, watching her kill herself. Bad Wolf. "The Trickster is a creature from beyond the universe. Forever trying to break in to our reality, manifest himself. He's one of the Pantheon of Discord."

"That's a good name for a band." Clyde commented.

Hmmm, hadn't thought of that. "Yeah, actually, not bad. He's an eternal exile, who exists to wreak havoc. But we can fight him, the five of us. And we can win." And then I got a trace of something, a flash of Sarah Jane's dark green as dads sonic started to beep. "Oh! Ha, that's it. A time trace. Just a hint of Sarah Jane. Ooo, she's close."

Then Rani shivered quickly. "What was that? Felt like someone just walked over my grave."

Dad whirled in a flurry of coat vents, facing her as I did. "Oh, oh, oh, she's here. She's here! Sarah!"

"Sarah Jane." She corrected. "She doesn't like being called Sarah." Since when?

"She does by us. K9?"

"Scanning, Master, Mistress Calliope."

"Doctor! CJ!"

Luke looked around quickly. "Mum. That was her."

"K9, isolate the time trace."

The dogs little radar ears started spinning from his order. "Affirmative, Master." Then they stopped."Temporal schism divided in two, Master."

And then I realised. "Yes, of course. We're trapped here in 3:23:23. and Sarah Jane's trapped too, just in another second. Our noise is bleeding through the gaps into the void, and so is hers, but there's a link holding us together. Maybe if we're loud enough, in the right place, we get through to her?"

"Hold on." Clyde interjected, stopping my train of thought. Great, I'd almost worked something out then. "You said you'd explain later. Well, it's later. Please explain."

Dad got on with it as I started scanning again. "The Trickster doesn't want us helping Sarah, so he's separated us, trapped us in two different seconds."

"Doctor. Callie!"

I turned to see where the voice came from, up the stairs and I sprinted. "Oh, oh, she's upstairs. Come on. Luke, K9, watch for the TARDIS, you see it coming back, shout the place down."

"Orders accepted, Mistress."

Dad was close behind me. "You two with us. Spit spot." We ran back through, but we went right back into the main room again. "She's here. If I can narrow the link ratio." He went to try, but a voice stopped him.

"Doctor. Seer."

We looked to see the Trickster, gruesome and proud in the black robe once more. "Ah. You look better in black. Or is white the new black? I don't know, I don't pay much attention to fashion, dad said that's a typical Time Lord thing."

The Creature smiled bitterly at us through cracked, shrivelled lips. "At last. Doctor, Calliope. I could feel this moment reverberating back through the ages. The meeting of the Pantheon of Discord and the last of the Time Lords, with his hybrid daughter." Um, thanks, I guess. I was more than a hybrid, I was badass squared.

"I've known the legends of the Pantheon since I was a little boy, well before my daughter was born. I've fought your shadows and your changelings. My daughter single handedly fought one of your more malicious forms, the Time Beetle, stopping the universe from unravelling. I never thought we'd actually meet."

"And I know the legends of the Doctor. The man of ice and fire, who walked among gods, who once held the Key to Time in his hands. His daughter, the Bad Wolf, the Girl of Colours, able to shatter the very skeleton of someone with just her voice, and liked it." Hey, that was a dark time, don't you dare bring it up. "She took apart the Dalek Empire at the age of 15, not knowing of her full heritage. Now they are surrounded by children."

Dad's voice lowered to a honey gold growl, like the sickly syrup coating something to smother it. "They're our friends. Which reminds me, you're looking a bit lonely for a Pantheon."

The crude smile hadn't yet left the worm like lips. "I embody multitudes. And who are you, the man who has lost everybody, to talk to me of loneliness, when the Gate is waiting for you? A Gate your daughter will watch you cross through?"

I stepped forward, putting dad behind me. "What do you mean? Come on, you ugly ass son of a bitch, we're trapped, what can we do? Tell me what you meant!"

Except he ignored me completely, still with a fixed gaze on dad behind me. "Sarah Jane Smith is my prize. Even you, Doctor, didn't realise how wonderful she is."

"What do you want with her?"

"What I always want from any of those I visit. Her agreement. Goodbye, Doctor. Goodbye, Calliope."

He vanished then, and I looked at dad, who seemed to be working something out. Good, because I was maiming that thing. "Her agreement. The power of words. She says I do, and. Yes, that's it!"

Clyde blinked at him. "That's what?"

"She promises to love and honour her husband, the wedding ring goes on and then she's agreed to it. She's totally under the Trickster's power. Marital bliss, but she forgets all about this. She starts living a new life." Oh, you were kidding me.

Which Rani understood. Wow, I was really missing Luke, and it had only been a few minutes. "Forgetting about her old life protecting the Earth."

"And the planet's wide open, so aliens can just barge in?"

That made sense, unfortunately. "Without Sarah, without you lot saving the world from your attic in Ealing, there'll be chaos and destruction. Meat and drink to the Trickster."

The only natural born male human scoffed. "As if she's gonna say yes."

"But she will, won't she. Because we're here." I said softly, before my voice was drowned out by the overpowering groan and wheeze of the TARDIS time engines. "Beautiful. Yes! It's homing in on Dad. Emergency program, protecting the pilot. Of course. Partial materialisation."

Luke ran in then, and the cold I'd started feeling finished, starting to warm up now he was around again. OK, I was really confused, what the hell was going on here? "What's happening?"

Dad was getting all fanboy over his ship again. "Look, that's pure artron energy. TARDIS power. Equal and opposite to the Trickster's power, just like Callie's voice. That's how we can fight him." He ran forward, unlocking the TARDIS door as I grabbed Luke, pulling him towards the door. Man, his warm hands... They were so lovely, perfectly opposite to my own icy ones half the time. "Run!"

A strong wind started pushing us back, crushing my ability to breathe, let alone sing. "Doctor!" Rani shouted, pulling me as well as I pulled Luke.

"Come on, all of you, get in. Come on now." Dad shouted again, managing to grab Clyde's hand, but he couldn't pull him in, the door slamming shut as the boy was thrown against it, artron energy coursing through him. Because that wasn't likely to make him grow an extra limb or anything.

"Clyde!" Luke and I shouted, running to check on him.

I pressed a small amount of sound into him, and he responded, making me relax a little. "He's just fine, a little shocked, don't let him out in a thunderstorm for about 10 years."

Rani sighed a little. "It's just us then."

"You all right?" Luke asked me and Clyde, seeing how I was holding my chest.

"Yeah. I think. He'll come back for us, won't he?"

"He will." I coughed, trying to clear my throat. "Yeah, I'm fine. Time winds, they're hard to breathe through when your DNA is time. It's like trying to breathe your own breath. You suffocate."

The other girl was still worrying about dads disappearance. "What if he can't?"

"He will." I replied firmly. "Luke, wait here for him. We'll check with K9."

He nodded, helping to push me to my feet as my chest was still trying to recover from the time winds. Why was it, I couldn't think straight with him near me, it was like my hearts kept beating so hard because they wanted him to hear them. I was so confused."The power of the TARDIS could fight the Trickster. Something energy." Rani muttered as we walked through into the lobby.

"Artron energy. Residue of TARDIS engines. Known to be highly inimical to certain time-sensitive life forms. It's what made the Time Lords what we are, giving us our gifts. Actually, gifts were still rare, especially ones as powerful as mine"

"There is no TARDIS." The girl reminded us. Hey, what was I, a duck?

Until Clyde held up his hand, a blue ball of the energy bubbling in his palm. Oh, that was not good. "Artron Energy. Not enough to do much, but you have it in you now, not sure how long it'll last. You can protect Luke and Rani here while I face the Trickster."

The boy shook his head. "No. We can fight him. K9 can protect them." Oh, no, no, first rule of dad's, never endanger people. "Wecan get close to the Trickster with this and your voice."

"Clyde, you can't. You don't know what you're doing." Rani told him, but I saw his point. The tactical advantage if there were two of us who could hurt him.

"When has that ever stopped us? It's what Sarah Jane would do. It's what the Doctor taught her, taught Callie. I've got no choice, Callie, come on."

Since when was he in charge? Eh, it was a good plan to be honest. We opened the door to the hotel, and he gave me a small nod as Rani begged us to stop. "Trickster!" I shouted, my voice resonating the bright white of Limbo, a posh term for the void. Hated the void, but it was a necessary evil to help Sarah.

The doors closed after us as he appeared in the mists that were slowly overwhelming my senses. "Clyde Langer, Seer. Why do you call me? Why do you leave your fathers side?" He left me, actually.

"I wish to serve you." Clyde told him. "I wish to join the Pantheon."

"You are of no importance. The Seer is pure power, the ability to control sound."

Oh, now that was something I really was, and I knew how to play up to it. "I know something. A secret. Something that can help you." We reached him, and he held out his hand. Clyde grabbed it before he could realise, and when I started to sing, he realised his mistake. "This was why you shouldn't trust me, because you're right. I did enjoy shattering spines. Not that it'll happen again."

But then the energy was flowing out of me, and I started screaming with Clyde, and we faded back into the wedding room, except this time Sarah Jane was there with Peter, and I let go, seeing dads terrified face, just before the TARDIS dematerialised. Great, we were on our own. We both dropped, but whereas he passed out, I just gagged, the taste of nothing burning through my tastebuds. At least the pastel colours of reality tasted like candyfloss.

"Doctor! Clyde, no." Sarah knelt besides us, taking my hand as she cradled Clydes head in my lap. "Callie, Callie, it's OK." Then Sarah Jane looked at her beloved. "Peter, I do love you, but the Doctor's right. There is another way out."

"Do not listen to her lies." The Trickster tried to say, but I sang again, and he cried out in pain. That's right, Mofo, I'm awesome.

She shook her head sadly, looking right at Peter. "Your accident. He can only talk to people who are about to die. He comes to them in that final moment. He gives them back their life."

He looked back at her, eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

"Clyde and Rani said your house was empty. Why did you never let me see your house? You died in that accident, Peter. But he needed you, so he kept you half alive. And if we got married the bargain would be complete. He would bring you back to life."

"Your love brought me back to life." Peter replied, his voice filling the white room with yellow fear and pale blue fear. "How can that be wrong, to save a life?"

"Look at this, this is what he'll do to millions of people unless, unless you break your deal with him. Look at Callie, what it takes for her to just keep him weak." Oh, was that why the room was spinning, I hadn't noticed.

Peter shook his head, looking pained. "But I'll lose you. I'll die. I don't want you to be alone."

Sarah Jane was crying now, looking terrified of the times to come. "I love you but I can't love you. You said you'd do anything to save me. If you love me, you know what you have to do."

And that was it, I knew what was happening as Peter moved towards the Trickster as he realised. "No."

"You got one thing exactly right." The man told him. "Sarah Jane and I, we were made for each other. we're the perfect match. And I know what she would do."

The Trickster knew he was done for now, so I stopped what I was doing, lying on the floor in a vain attempt to stop everything from slowly vibrating back and forth, but it just made things worse, Sarah Jane holding my hand tight to stop me from throwing up. That was not a pretty thought. "But I chose you because you didn't have the strength."

"You really don't know my Sarah Jane, do you? She gave me the strength. And I withdraw my agreement."

"No!" And then he was gone, and Peter turned back to face Sarah Jane, tears streaming down her face as she watched him.

"So, here I go. I wish I'd always known you."

I slowly sat up to wrap and arm around the woman, now only a few years my elder. Fun times, me growing old in the past and people staying the same age around me. "I love you, Peter."

He smiled back at her, letting go of her hand. "And I love you, Sarah Jane Dalton."

Then he was gone in a shower of sparkles, dad, Luke and Rani running in followed by a long distance by K9. "Dad!"

"Mum!"

"Luke. Doctor. Oh, Doctor, CJ." Sarah wept, and he wrapped his arms around the lot of us as we started to go back to where we were supposed to be. Seriously, the room was spinning like when dad accidentally put the TARDIS on carnival mode.

He smiled at her, pausing to kiss my hair. "My Sarah Jane. You did it. The trap's broken. Time's moving forward again, We're going home. Callie, try not to throw up just yet." Thanks, dad.

"Hold on!" Luke shouted as the winds around us started to pick up, but I was so warm being near him. Ok, I give up, its just a nice feeling.

"We're all going home." Dad shouted again, until he was gone, and I was stood where Peter had been, dad no where to be seen. Great, yet another disappearing act.

"If any person can show just cause or impediment why they may not be joined together let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

Everyone was staring at us, and I moved closer, seeing Sarah Jane biting back tears. "Where's he gone? Sarah's bloke, where's he gone? Who's she, is that what's her face from Buffy?" Seriously, what was Buffy?

"He was just there."

"Where's The Doctor gone?" I heard Luke as the others, letting Sarah hug me for a moment, holding her tight. It hurt, to suddenly lose your world. When I lost Katie, my little sister... It hurt so bad, like I was dying.

Rani frowned, looking between Luke and Clyde. "That all really happened, didn't it?"

"Yeah."

K9 moved forward from under the cake trolley. Why, Clyde? "Affirmative."

Luke got to his feet, moving towards us. "Mum? Callie?"

"I'm sorry, everybody." Sarah Jane said with a thick voice, facing the small crowd of her friends here. "I'm afraid the wedding is cancelled."

She walked away then, and I followed slowly, picking up her bouquet as she dropped it. I drove us back to her house, a lovely 3 storey building in Ealing, letting her change out of her dress as I made us some coffee, with that added bonus of whiskey. For some reason that was called an Irish coffee, not overly sure why. "Mister Smith, I need you."

The super awesome super computer came out with a green fanfare, the swirling screen having a whale of a time with small data sounds. He was basically bad ass. "Welcome back, Sarah Jane. Nice to meet you, Callie."

"Mum, are you all right?" Luke asked, coming into the attic with Clyde and Rani, all still in their wedding outfits.

"I'm going to be fine, I've got you, haven't I?" She smiled, getting to her feet and hugging him. He was lovely, really lovely. OK, now I sounded like Cassie from Skins.

"I can't believe the Doctor ran off like that."

I nodded, playing with my hair. "Sudden disappearing acts. That's him all over."

"Sarah Jane, Callie, escalation of temporal flux."

"Temporal flux escalating." K9 echoed, and I saw the familiar gold glow of the TARDIS materialising.

"Seriously, dad, how did you get her to fit?" I asked the air, as he then stuck his head out of the door.

His face was still happy, just a little hurt. "What do you take me for, Sarah, Callie? Just thought I'd go the quick way, leaving you behind." He then realised where he was. "Ooo, I like it in here."

Rani was the first to get up courage. "Can we have a look?"

"What, in the TARDIS? My TARDIS!"

Dad, you were such a goddamn Spaz. "Course you can, yeah." I told them, leading the way inside with a laugh, Luke coming in behind me, then the others.

"Oh, wow. It really is, isn't it? It's bigger on the inside."

"It's beautiful."

"Transcendental dimensions." OK, brilliant, I loved Luke for getting that. Huh, love. Weird feelings.

Clyde reached out to hit a button on the console, on that activated said Carnival mode, and my stomach was still churning slightly. "Wow, what does this do?"

Sarah Jane batted his hand away fondly. "Hey, don't touch." Then she looked at me and dad, my father checking me over with the sonic. Great, helicopter parenting. "You came all that way for me."

Did she not know why? She was amazing, she was dads best friend. "You're so important. Not just to us. The Trickster wanted to end your story, but it goes on. The things you've done, Sarah, they're pretty impressive, but, oh, the things you're going to do."

"The future." Luke cried, looking at us. "How about we could go for a ride?"

"Or back." His friend added. "To the dinosaurs, yeah?"

The other girl now had a plan. "Another planet?"

But their guardian had a complaint. "No way. For one thing, you were grounded by the Judoon." OK, how did they manage that one, and how can I undo it so we can joyride in the TARDIS? "And your parents would never forgive me. Go on."

They all went out, and I followed them, feeling like I'd made fast friends for once. "So, what did you think?" I asked, picking up a small device on the side. "How the hell do you have a Kanto Stasis Ball?"

Which got Luke exited again. "Is that what it is? Mum's had Mr Smith trying to work out what this thing was for weeks now!"

"Yeah, you just throw it at a hostile alien, and it gets trapped inside until you press the button on the front. Instant prison." I replied, throwing it up and catching it again. Loved these things, great way to stop a Raptor in it's tracks. "Got anything else you need identifying?"

Clyde and Rani then started finding things, while Luke stayed stood with me. "You're amazing, Callie, really." He told me, his big blue eyes wide and sincere. Aw, he was so sweet... "Um, I, uh, was wondering, maybe, if, you, maybe, wanted to-"

"Basically, he's asking you out." I blinked, turning to look at Clyde. "He's rubbish when it comes to girls, so please say yes so he can at least get some experience."

Wow. Um. Right. Dating. One person and another, on a date. I'd never expected to be in this situation, but, well. Why not? "Sure. I, um. Give me your phone, I'll give you my number." I took it from him, putting the number in, as well as the TARDIS landline, as Sarah Jane came out of the TARDIS, giving me a quick hug. "I know it doesn't feel like it, Sarah, but it does get better, I promise. I'm so sorry."

She nodded, and I backed into the TARDIS, the doors closing in front of me as Luke waved with a bright, shy smile on his face, giving me another of those warm feelings. OK, what the hell was going on with me?

But hey, I had a date.


	27. Helicopter Parenting

**Callie:**

"I'm really happy you came out with me." Luke smiled, sitting down opposite me at the restaurant as I self-consciously smoothed down my skirt. "I've been really looking forwards to seeing you again, Callie."

I smiled back at him, playing with the end of my hair now, the warmth that I always felt around him back in full force, and it was so lovely. I was genuinely turning into Cassie from skin's around this guy too, it was so weird.

"I'm happy that I came out too. I've been looking forward to this all week, tried to get dad to move us closer in time, but well..." I laughed a little, knowing that Dad wasn't overly happy that I had a date. Protective parent, let's me single handedly defeat a Dalek, but gets worried about me going on a date.

Luke laughed too, smiling thanks at the waitress who came to give us two glasses of water and the menus. "Mum was really protective too, don't worry. Surprisingly it was Clyde who managed to convince her to let me take you out here."

"Damn, Clyde didn't seem the persuasive one, either." I giggled, playing with the end of my currently straight dark hair. Took a while, what with the length, but it did go straight. "More seemed like Rani. She wants to be a journalist, right?"

He nodded, quickly scanning the menu down before looking back up at me. Super memory, he only had to look once, whereas the words weren't that bright in regards to my synaesthesia. The brighter and more out standing the words, the faster I could memorise the colour patterns and that improves the recall capacity of my brain. "Mum thinks she's got the stuff to make it too, but wants her to come on a few Investigations to be sure. She's just got to wait until she's a little older."

"Yeah, probably best. You can take on aliens and make it home for tea, but one slightly wrong move on a journalism trip, and you're in prison, being bailed by your angry parents."

"Something tells me your dad wouldn't need to bail you, Callie." Luke smiled, and his bright blue eyes lit up, sparkling like sapphires in the sun. "And that he wouldn't be all to angry about you getting arrested, as long as you could explain why."

That was actually a very good point. Let's just not tell him about what happened on the parallel Earth, where I was locked in my room with a deadlock seal every night. Sleepwalking was not good. "That is very true, Luke. And your mum is very likely to be the one to get you arrested, isn't she?"

"Mums very good at getting right out of it, though. Because of her time in UNIT, she does have friends in high places." Luke agreed. "I think I'm going to get the jacket potato, what do you want, CJ?"

Hmmm... Given that not long ago, the idea of eating in front of someone made me want to throw up, I wasn't sure what I wanted to eat. Most of it was nice, I did know that, but it was still worrying that all the work I put into feeling comfortable around eating, could go in a heartsbeat if I chose the wrong food.

"Um... Carbonara." I said after a short pause. It was the least messy, I'd decided. "Carbonara with some coke."

"Good choice, Miss." A waitress told us, appearing by our side. "So that would be the bolonaise jacket potato and the carbonara and two cokes?"

We agreed, and the overly enthusiastic waitress wandered off to take the orders to the kitchen, leaving us alone again. "So, who told you about this place?"

"Mum did. Said it was a great place, really good food." Luke replied, nibbling on a breadstick from the middle of the table. "I backed it up with a load of the reviews on Mr Smith. He's got access to everything, near enough."

Hmm. That was a little strange. "Dad said the same thing when he told me where you were taking me. He said that he'd been here, and that he loved the food."

Now Luke paused, looking around the restaurant where people were quietly chatting around us, all doing there own thing. Every table was full, meaning that the ones closest to the back were hidden from view. "You don't think..."

"Luke, they've both been really worried about this date, they've both gotten us late in our lives, sort of, and they're both capable of getting places other people aren't." I told him. "Dad's happy that when I regenerated, I regenerated to an age where I still needed a dad, but I'm still likely to grow up again. Your mum has you all the time. She probably doesn't want to lose her son."

"But you really think that-" Luke cut off as my hands lit up slightly blue, a soft noise coming from them. "OK, you're checking for sonic pulses. Any reason for that?"

I gave him a sly smile. "My dad is very good at getting lost. I worked out a way to find him through the sonic screwdriver, therefore..." They suddenly turned a darker blue, the note of the sound going from a D to an E flat. "Gotcha. That's both my dad and your mum hiding at the table closest to the kitchen."

His head thumped on the table. "Perfect. We have helicopter parents."

Laughing, I carefully moved his head up again, feeling even warmer when my skin touched his. "Luke, I can very easily get us out. You don't mind getting a little wet, do you?"

I didn't give him time to answer, I just sent a short sonic pulse through to the fire alarms, setting them, and the sprinklers off over all the diners, before grabbing Lukes hand and dragged him out of the restaurant before dad or Sarah Jane realised what was going on.

We kept running, running into main London, both of us soggy, but laughing. "That was brilliant!"

"That was nothing. You should see what I can do with my voice." I giggled, tying up my long hair, now starting to curl again from the water. "Damn, it took me hours to do that."

"You shouldn't have. Your hair looks amazing, Callie." Luke smiled, his hand still in mine as we kept walking. "So, now that dinners a bust, where should we go?"

That was a good point actually. I knew London so well, having spent years on the streets, which meant I could show him more than your average tour guide. "Name your favourite building in London."

Luke blinked, before answering. "Tower of London."

He couldn't have made it a challenge, could he? "Come on." I grinned, pulling him towards it. "I want to show you something!"

"Callie, it's half 8 at night, it won't be open!" He shouted back, running with me anyway. "You're going to get us in trouble!"

"Luke, you save the world on a regular basis, you live in trouble!"

"I don't get into trouble for breaking and entering!"

Yeah, something that I did a lot, and never got caught, so he'd be fine. We rounded the corner of the massive UNIT base, and saw where all of the camera's were, so sent out a small pulse to freeze them in a way that looked like they were still working. "OK, we should be fine until they realise what I've done. Stay down, and follow me."

Luke did as I said, getting down low as I found the gap in the perimeter wall, and crawled through. "Callie, what are we doing?"

"It's a surprise!" I whispered back, pausing as a guard went past, before pulling him quickly to a door, sonicking it open quickly. "Through here."

The minute the door closed behind us, I remembered that the stairs were behind a deadlocked door. "Cal, where now? What are we doing?"

"It won't be a surprise if I told you!" I laughed, before pressing my hand to the door. "Cover your ears." He blinked. "Seriously. Unless you want you to end up deaf, I'd cover your ears." Luke quickly clapped his hands over his ears then, and I let out a pitch that shattered the deadlock, causing the door to swing open. Luckily, it was similar to the Mosquito sound, meaning only Luke and I would be able to hear it.

"That, that was impressive." He agreed as we started up the stairs toward the roof. "Why are we doing this, really?"

"For the view!" I cried, getting him up there, showing the lights from the city across the river. "Everywhere in London, every roof, every stone in the city."

Luke paused, looking across the water at the hustle and bustle of London, where even at night things were manic, where everything was busy, and the awe in his eyes made my hearts skip a beat. "This, this in incredible. How did you know about this, Callie!? Your dad wouldn't willingly ask for UNIT'S help, how do you know about this?"

Shrugging, I leant against the wall, remembering when I hid up here to try and watch the comets my first year on the streets. Dad, the one who died, he loved taking me to see them every August, and I hadn't seen them in years. "When you live on the streets, you learn where to hide."

"You were on the streets?" Luke asked softly, putting an arm around me as I shivered a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that. Was this before your dad found you?"

"Yeah." I replied, leaning back against him, and his grip around me tightened, and I felt so safe, like nothing at all could hurt me. "It was a long time ago now, but I still remember when he saw me, no one else ever did, or could, I don't know. It was like in Neverwhere, London Above and London Below. I was there, but no one could see me, and the moment they looked away, they forgot about me."

Luke turned me and gave me a proper hug then, and I hugged him back, loving the way it made me feel inside. "I don't see how anyone could ever forget you, Callie. You're amazing, you're funny, you can manipulate sound with your voice! You're unforgettable, Calliope Jace Smith."

Oh, really... Luke was so amazing, he really was... "I'm so glad we came out tonight" I smiled, pulling back from the hug to look at him. "I've never felt like this before, it's, it's like-"

"You're in a warm bath, and everytime I see you, it's putting in a fresh load of hot water." He interjected, and I laughed, knowing that he just finished my sentence. "And I've just realised that we've done what Clyde told me not to be. Cliché."

Laughing, I shook my head a little. "I don't care about cliché. But as we've been it... Why not keep going?" Luke smiled at me then, moving closer to gently push his lips against mine, and I closed my eyes, feeling the lights and the music of the city surround us, like everything new was right with the universe for that exact moment.

I moved my lips for against Luke's, and his hands moved to cup my waist softly and my arms went around his neck, my fingers tangling in his hair.

We pulled away after a moment, and Luke laughed like mad, his eyes on the city skyline before turning me around. "Now that, that is pretty awesome."

The colours of the city were brighter, the buildings themselves glowing in different colours, and I saw that the trails of the colours started with us. "Well, I guess if they were looking for us, they're going to find us now."

"Is this you doing this, Callie?" Luke asked with an amazing smile on his face. "Because you've activated the slight bioluminescence that every form of stone has, and you're controlling it all."

"Ah, here's the thing..." I smiled, looking as the colours faded again. "I don't always control it. My emotions are what hold it all, and in moment that I lose control, it ends like that. But I can do better, watch this."

Moving to the end of the roof, I closed my eyes, listening to the stones, to find the right frequencies. Then I started to sing, loud, and powerful, the notes travelling through the stones, through the London Bridge, to the main city and brighter, more colourful streams of light traveling like veins to show the areas affected.

"That's incredible..." Luke breathed, the colours reflected in his eyes, swirling blues and greens, yellows and orange, pinks and purples. "Just with your voice..."

I stopped singing, and the trails of light faded, leaving London in darkness compared to what it had been. "Yeah, imagine the bollocking I'm going to get though. I'm not supposed to do that."

"I can imagine." He nodded, kissing my cheek lightly. "either way, I'm so happy we got to do this, Callie."

Turning, I nodded to face him again, pressing my lips harder to his, and he kissed me back. God, this felt so good, like it was perfection.

Until the TARDIS materialised in front of us, and we saw both dad and Sarah Jane watching us out if the doors. "Busted..."

 **DW**

"So how was it?" Dad asked after we dropped Sarah and Luke back off at the attic, and I'd changed into my pyjamas. "I mean, you're both grounded for breaking into the UNIT headquarters, but it looked like you had a good time."

I nodded, sitting down on the consoles seats, hugging my arms around my legs. "It was amazing. Just... It was perfect, though I never got my carbonara. Why were you both there?"

Dad paused, his hand on the console, ready to send us of through time and space, but he swapped to the handbrake. "Callie... Remember how it was when you first started calling me dad?"

"Uh, yeah. It was the day that said your life really started again after the war." I nodded, braiding my hair ready for bed. "What does that have to do with anything, Dad?"

He came and sat next to me, and I leant against him, feeling a different type of safety and warmth than I did with Luke, but I knew that he would alwas be here to protect me. "It kinda... Both Sarah Jane and I have never been happier than we have before you and Luke came into our lives, love. And... I suppose that we were both scared that we were about to lose you both."

Aww. "Dad, I promise you, that if I ever move out, that I will come back and visit." I paused for a moment. "And I'd buy you a cat."

"Oh, thanks, Calliope." He laughed, pretending to be offended. I knew he didn't really hate cats after losing Rain. "But really, really, you had a good night, yes?"

"Yes, daddy." I smiled, kissing his cheek. "Lukes so perfect, he's so kind, and I just feel so warm when I look at him, and it's like nothing can hurt me."

Dad sighed, and patted my shoulder. "I thought so. You're just perfect together, the way you have the same thoughts. Just... Be careful. Jace, really. Please."

Nodding, I cuddled into him sleepily. "I will, dad. Promise. Love you."

"I love you too, Callie."


	28. Banshee Wail

**The Doctor**

"Howdy there, pardners." I smiled, walking into the American Diner with Callie, who was sporting shorts and a vest today. Having gone on this date with Luke, she was a lot more confident, which was nice, I just didn't want to lose my daughter this soon.

But she was shaking her head at me as I did the accent. "No, no, dad, no, just, no, don't do that."

"Howdy." The other guy in there waved though.

The girl waved too. "How you doing?"

Oh, it smelt amazing in here. "Ah, the smell of fast food on the desert air. The perfume of America."

"Hey, are you two British or something?"

Callie smiled brightly, her fireworks print vest suiting her colourful demeanor. "Something, that's us, definitely. Dad and were passing and he got the fancies. A bowl of chili. The sort you only ever got in an American diner before 1962. I'm Calliope, Callie, and this is my dad, the Doctor, by the way."

"I'm Cassie." Now, that was fun. Callie and Cassie. It was Jace and Jackie all over again. "This is Jimmy Stalkingwolf."

My eyes fixed on the counter, where there was a case with a short green coil with metal ends, and I knew that was really not supposed to be here. "Whoa, where did you get that?"

Cassie shrugged. "It's supposed to be from the saucer that crashed five years back. You know, like that Roswell thing over in New Mexico. My mom, she used to run this place, thought it would bring in the tourists." My daughter beat me to taking it out of it's box, and pressed a small amount of a soft yellow light into it. Walking sonic screwdriver with every colour in the spectrum, that's her. "Like they don't know a piece of junk when they see it."

And then it lit up, the bulbs blowing in the ceiling. "Callie!"

"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly, handing it to me.

"What did you just do, girl?" Jimmy asked her as I messed with it, trying to prevent that happening again. Light bulbs were expensive in this time.

Cal shrugged. "I'm afraid this isn't quite a piece of junk."

"Are you saying this really did come from a flying saucer?"

Hmmm, well, that was a possibility, and it sounded about right, but I couldn't be sure without testing it in the TARDIS. "Well, a flying saucer, maybe. They were quite fashionable in the fifties. Bit like bobbie sox and haircream."

"I told you." Jimmy told Cassie. "I told you there was something going on round here."

"What do you mean?" Callie asked with a frown, playing with her hair.

The blonde girl shrugged now, and I put a hand on my little, well, not really little, girl. "Jimmy works out at the Broken K ranch. Says there's this space monster eating the cattle. I told him it's a cougar."

"No cougar did what I saw, or left those tracks."

A man in black entered then, and Callie's eyes darkened, seeing something in her colours that we couldn't, and I tightened my grip, going for the charm offensive. "Oh, hello."

He got right down to business. "I'll take the ionic fusion bar."

Cassie blinked, not knowing what he meant. "Come again?"

"He means your piece of junk, dear." Callie told her softly.

"No way! It doesn't belong to you." It didn't belong to you either, actually, Cassie.

"Not such a good idea to argue." I smiled, walking a little closer, offering the man my hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter, Calliope."

Not that he cared, he just wanted to fusion bar. "Give it to me."

Jimmy put his hand on his shoulder, trying to be intimidating. "Didn't you hear what the lady said?"

"That's definitely not a good idea." Callie told him, ducking as one gentle shove threw the man backwards the length of the diner. "Okay, time to go."

We started running, and she paused in the doorway, and let out a banshee wail of sonic pitch, making the men cower before jumping into the back of Jimmy's pickup, speaking to us through the back window. "Now, what was that about a monster?" I asked, high fiving my daughter. "Nice work, your aim is getting better."

"Yeah, well, I wish that I could control it better before I accidentally blew up the kitchen."

I nodded a little, "Yeah, that probably-" And then I realised what she said. "Calliope! What have I told you about using that in the TARDIS?!"

She nodded back, taking all the things she was going to have to do to make it up to the TARDIS, before we made it to the Broken K Ranch. Strange name, but I couldn't really say much. Oh, and there were very large alien footprints in the sand. "What kind of cougar makes a print like that?"

"No cougar." Callie and I agreed, looking at it. "No animal. This was something big. Very big. Something powerful. Something that isn't from around here."

And then there was a roar, and my little girl laughed, turning to look at it with me. "Ah! Viperox battle drone. Hello!" And then Cassie screamed, causing both her and the drone to flinch. "Try not to do that. Apart from being one of the most vicious killers in the cosmos, Viperox have very sensitive ears, and so do I!" Jimmy put his hand over her mouth, and she sighed.

"Thank you." I said, putting my arm around her. "Not a good idea to aggravate him, or Calliope."

"It doesn't look aggravated to me, Doc." Jim muttered softly, backing away slowly. "He looks hungry."

Oh, why did people do that... Why? It was just annoying. "Doctor, not Doc, and if he was hungry he'd be picking bits of cowboy boots and bobbie sox off his mandibles by now."

"So if he ain't going to eat us," Cassie asked softly. "What is he going to do?"

"It's a Viperox battle drone." My daughter replied, holding her hands out, ready to try and stop it. "What it doesn't use for food it uses for target practice." The Viperox raised its very long 'arms' and opened its claws. There were harpoons inside them. Perfect. "Look out!"

One flew right over our heads, and Cal deflected it with sound waves, before it exploded. "Run! Back to the pickup!" I shouted, before a whirly bird, also known as a helicopter arrived overhead. "Get down!"

As we hit the ground, a missile from the helicopter hit the Viperox, causing it to explode, a claw landing in the ground close to us. The helicopter landed just after, as we got to our feet toy dust ourselves off. "Howdy! Perfect timing."

"Our orders are to take you with us."

"Whose orders are those, then?" Callie asked, clicking her fingers. Oh, I hated that sound, why did she have to keep doing that...

"Colonel Stark, ma'am."

"Colonel Stark!" I cried, acting like I knew who that was, when I didn't have the foggiest. "Who's that, then."

They answered in military terms, making Cal blink like she didn't know. Well, she did, but she liked to pretend she didn't command UNIT in the parallel universes. "Commanding Officer, Operation Fallen Angel, Groom Lake Army Airbase."

Oh, no way! That was so cool! "What? You mean Area 51. Dreamland? Oh, I've always wanted to go there."

Cassie shook her head. "Doctor, Callie, no. People that go there, civilians, they never come back." Good thing we weren't technically weren't Earth citizens then.

"I've heard all kinds of things about that place, and none of it's good." Jimmy backed her up. "It's said they've got aliens there from the Roswell crash." Probably did.

"I know." I grinned, taking my daughter's hand as she looked unamused, texting one handed. "I've always wanted to take a peek. Take me to your leader. Allons-y. Callie, stop texting your boyfriend, he can wait 5 minutes." Or, well, 50 odd years. "Dreamland. The United State's most secret base. It doesn't appear on any map, and the government won't admit it exists till 1994."

Jimmy blinked at me as we were lead into the base. "What did you say?"

Callie rolled her eyes, putting the phone in her shorts. "Never mind. Dad, you tell me I'm careless."

"Where are they taking us?" Cassie asked as we were lead into a lift.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But I don't think Colonel Stark has a penthouse apartment."

We started to go down, and we were placed into a secure room with a submarine style door, 2 filing cabinets, two chairs and a table. Callie wanted to buckle the door in, hating being trapped in here, but I wouldn't let her. We were guests, and we didn't damage property unless we didn't like what we saw. "So what happens now?" Jimmy asked.

"Nothing good." Cassie replied.

Callie made a face, looking through the files in the cabinet. She got bored and wanted something to read. "Oh, come on. I thought the fifties were supposed to be a time for optimism. I mean, you think you're going to have flying cars in another ten years." We were from 2009 and we knew better.

The diner girl shrugged. "Yeah, sure, if the Reds don't nuke us first."

Wait, what? "The Reds? Manchester United?" Callie shook her head, and I realised. "Oh, the Russians. Soviet Union. I wouldn't worry about them. They're as scared of a nuclear war as you are."

And then the door opened. "I hear you people had some trouble."

"Ah, Colonel Stark, I presume." Callie smiled, moving towards him. "Hello, I'm Callie, and this is my father, the Doctor," She leaned forward to say something softly. "And I think you may have a serious infestation problem."

"We have the situation in hand."

Cassie raised an eyebrow. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"You don't have to worry, ma'am."

That really didn't sound good. "Oh? Why's that?"

"Because you're going to forget everything you've seen. You're going to forget everything."

Oh no, no, no, no. "No, Colonel. Colonel, you're making a mistake."

Not that they'd listen, they never did. "Soldiers! Take them to the lab. Prepare them for the mind wipe."

We were dragged there, and attached to tables, tilted slightly backwards, and Callie kept still, luckily. I think she was tired, her banshee wail took a lot out of her, and she'd lit up half of London just a night ago. The cover up from Mr Smith had been phenomenal though, the Northern Lights unexpectedly coming to London. "What are they going to do to us?"

"From the look of this chamber, use some sort of amnesia gas."

"So we forget everything about that Viperox bug thing?" Jimmy asked. "Maybe that isn't so bad."

Yeah... Maybe not. "Hmm. Trouble is, no one really perfects a targeted amnesia drug for another fifty years. The sort of thing Colonel Stark has in his medicine cabinet won't just wipe out the last few hours. You'll forget everything."

"They can't do this. We're US citizens."

Her friend rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Cassie, and they're the Army. They can do whatever they want. They've been doing it ever since the Bear River massacre." A very good point.

Then Stark came back in, and I had a longing to be in the Marvel universe, where Stark would make this Tony Starks father, and therefore a lot more lenient. "Colonel. Sorry I can't salute, but I seem to be strapped to a table, as well as my 17 year old daughter." Let's not say that she was 55 and older than him.

"The gas can have side-effects." He replied cooly. "The straps are for your own safety."

"Very thoughtful, but have you considered that you've got dangerous ten foot tall aliens out in the desert?" Callie asked softly, looking very calm. "And believe me, Colonel, where there's one Viperox there's at least a thousand more. I know how to stop them, you don't."

He watched her carefully, walking a little closer. Get the hell away from my daughter. "You know a great deal, Missy. More than is good for you. But I'm going to fix that."

The Colonel turned a red wheel and green gas started to enter the room. "You can't do this. So help me, I'm going to tell the President." Cassie shouted, fighting her restraints.

"Little lady, in ten minutes you won't know who the President is. You won't know who you are." Yeah, that had happened to me before, didn't fancy having it happen again. Then he left, closing the door behind him.

"Try to hold your breath." I told everyone. "I just need a few more seconds." A big screen came in front of us as I kept struggling, trying to remember what Houdini taught me. Let's just say that I wasn't very good at remembering things right now. "Callie-"

Then I looked to see my daughter already out, turning off the gas. "Yeah, I know. Sonic yourself out and turn off the gas. I thought I'd skip you failing and do it anyway, dad."

"How did you do that?" Jimmy asked as she set a sonic pulse to let us out too.

MY daughter shrugged. "Gift of the Time Vortex, me being the only of my kind, the fact that I'm just awesome, take your pick."

Smiling, I gave her a quick hug. "All of the above, Love."

"We're still trapped." Cassie pointed out, but we just pointed to a grille in the ceiling.

We all climbed up, Callie leading the way to be able to give us some light. "There's always a ventilation shaft."

"Dad, are you sure there's a way out of here?" Cal asked me, after we crawled for a while. The other reason for her going first, I didn't want her to have her behind in Jimmy's face. 50's, womens rights weren't really happening yet.

"Of course there's a way out, Calliope." I told her firmly, offended that she thought otherwise. "There always is. Apart from in Star Wars, of course."

Then Jimmy spoke up from the back. "Hey, Doc, are you two ever going to start making sense?"

Please, please... I wouldn't hesitate to leave you behind. "Are you going to stop calling me Doc? I'm the Doctor, all right? And you're not Bugs Bunny."

"Hey."

And then Callie punched out a grill from the shaft, and dropped down as light and lithe as a cat, then I did, helping Cassie down after. "Where are we?"

Yeah, like we knew. "Who are we, the Dreamland tour guides?" I asked incredulously. "Come on."

"Why are we going that way?" Jimmy demanded. "I mean, who gave you the stripes? You're not even American."

Callie grinned, turning around to face him while texting again. "Well, come to that, we're not even human. Well, I'm part human, but mostly alien. For you anyway, I'm normal for myself." And then an alarm sounded that she on impulse turned back off. Smooth. "Someone's just noticed we've escaped, so whichever way you're running, I'd start now."

They followed us to a junction, and armed soldiers were approaching. "What now?"

Hmm, Lab 51, looks as good a way as any. "That way."

"There's no way through here." Jimmy cried as Callie sonicked the lock on the door, and the soldiers ran past.

We looked back into the room, one wall taken up with a big metal door, labelled Warning Biohazard. A movie camera was pointing at it. "Did you mean what you said back there, you're not human? Either of you?"

Did we really have time for this now? "Well, human, Time Lord, it's all just an accident of dimensional geography when you get down to it." Well, sort of, but Callie was both. "I wonder what's behind there?" I pushed a button that raised the door, where a small grey alien was sitting on the bed in an otherwise empty cell. She raised her head, and blinked her large, opaque black eyes, like the heart of night. "Ah."

"Uh, now that is an alien."

"The question is, why are they keeping her a prisoner?" Callie asked softly, moving closer before the soldiers burst in, and she quickly let out another banshee wail, nearly crippling our friends too before she focused her aim.

"Quickly, this way." I shouted at them, dragging them into the lift, before Callie came too, the guards on the floor, holding their ears. "Hold on."

I used the sonic now, making us hurtle up a lot faster. "What if there are more soldiers waiting for us up top?"

Now, there was a plan. "Charm offensive."

"What's that mean?"

We reached the hanger, surrounded by rifles and more soldiers, but Callie was too tired to be able to do any more. I needed to get her home, and soon. "It means you put your hands up and smile."

So that meant we were taken prisoner once more, being lead towards an alien spaceship, and our friends who weren't used to any of this stared in awe. "I cannot be seeing that."

"A real live flying saucer."

"Yeah." I agreed, slipping the sonic out of my pocket. "Fancy taking her for a spin?" Then the entry ramp dropped down, and we ran for it. "Okay, come on!"

"Stop, or we fire!" Yeah, you were American's, of course you would, but we managed to get onto the ship without anyone being shot, Callie still having some scabs from the bus accident across her abdomen.

The ship got started,me at the helm, and Callie was holding on for dear life. The flight wasn't exactly smooth, I had to say. "Can you really fly this? Dad, you fly the TARDIS with her brakes on!" Oh, shut up, I knew what I was doing.

"Well, sort of. Ooff. Stark's scientists have retro-engineered it, probably based on their prisoner's ship." I told her, working hard to get us in a straight line. "They've got a couple of systems the wrong way round, but we're getting there. Ha, ha, ha! Left is right and up is down. No problem, no problem."

Sparks then flew, the console fizzing a little. "What did you do that time?"

Callie shook her head, looking behind us. "Wasn't him. We've got company. Hang on!"

She pushed me out of the way, going into evasive maneuvers, but it was too late. "Those red lights don't look good." Cassie pointed out.

"Red lights never are." She agreed. "I wonder if parachutes came as standard or an added option."

The ship crash landed into the desert, and our small group headed into a ghost town, the sun slowly starting to set in the distance. "Solitude." I read the town sign. "Well, it's certainly quiet and lonely."

"It was a mining town a century back." Jimmy explained. "No one here now but the ghosts."

We headed into a building, and Callie reached up to take down an oil lamp. "Have you got a match?

"Sure. Here."

She lit the lamp and held it around, her skin paler than usual. No more sonic manipulation for a while. "Look, what's going on, Doctor, Callie? If the military know about these alien things, how come we're the enemy?"

Wish that I knew, Cassie. "I don't know, but I intend to find out. Tomorrow I'm going back to Dreamland, while Callie stays with you."

But then there was a cry from Jimmy in the backroom, and we all ran to find what was happening. He'd been dragged into a hole underground, and we followed, dropping down into the hole. "Don't make too much noise, Cal, Cassie. Remember, the Viperox have a heightened sense of hearing."

"Is Jimmy going to be all right?"

"If the Viperox had wanted to kill him, it would have done it back in Solitude." Callie told her, holding the lantern up higher to light our way.

There was a large cavern not to far away, and I took my daughters hand, leading her closer as we listened to what was going on with Jimmy and one of the Viperox. "Be careful, human. I am Azlok, Lord Might of the Imperial Viperox Warhorde. Consider who seems in more danger of being crushed underfoot."

"You're never going to take over Earth." He shouted back. "The military will blast you into bug bits."

"What do you think the Empire of the Viperox would possibly want with this termite ball?" Heh, you were like giant bugs yourself, mate. "Who is this man called Doctor? And his offspring, the one with a voice to shatter the heavens themselves."

I nodded to Cal and we both headed out as Cassie sneaked up to start helping Jimmy get free. "Oh, now, that would be us. And this is Calliope, she's The Girl Of Colours, Defender of the Light, Bad Wolf, or the Seer, whatever you want to call her." They stared at us in a way they must have thought was intimidating, but not really. "We've got a few things we'd like to ask you, as it happens. The most obvious being, if you're not here to invade it, what on Earth are you doing here?"

He moved closer to us. "You are not of this world, either of you. I hear two hearts beating in both yours chests."

"Then note their rhythm." Callie told him darkly. "We're not scared of you. And whatever you're doing on Earth, we won't let you hurt its people."

"We seek only an enemy of our kind."

Right, really? "Oh? And who's that, then?"

"Doctor, Callie, look out!" We all turned, and Cassie threw the oil lamp, the flames encircling the Viperox before they pulled us to run.

I was not best pleased to say the least. "What did you do that for?"

The woman gave me a sarcastic look. Was sarcasm even around in the 50's? "It's called escaping, Doctor."

"We were that close to discovering what's going on here." Callie cried as we stopped in a tunnels, before Jimmy fell back into a small depression in the ground. "Jimmy?" Her hand lit up with sonic energy as I got out the sonic screwdriver, revealing a collection of pyramidical pods. "Oh, this isn't good."

"Doc, Cal, tell me this isn't an egg."

My daughter stared at it. "The Viperox never bring an army with them. They land, go underground, and hatch one."

"Hatch an army?" Cassie asked. "Then who's laying-"

"The Viperox Queen." I interrupted, indicating the massive creature stood above us. "I don't think she's amused. I have this effect on royalty. Run!"

We got a wriggle on, and made it into a large area with rails and a wagon, part of the old mine system. "Must have found our way into an old mine."

"They're coming."

"Get in the truck." Callie shouted, grabbing my screwdriver to get rid of the nails from the beams, before kicking down the support beams, jumping in after everything started to fall, right on top of the Viperox. "That should hold them for a while. Now all we have to do is get off."

Which we did a little later by crashing right through a boarded up adit, stopping dead as we hit a boulder, my arms tightly around my daughter to stop her from going flying. And we were met my 4 men in black. "Good morning, Doctor, Calliope."

Great. "Hello again. I don't think we got properly introduced back at the diner. You are?"

"Mister Dread. These are my associates."

"No, no, let me guess. Mister Fear, Mister Terror and Mister Apprehension." Callie laughed, sleepily getting up to look at them. "The Alliance of Shades' mop up teams never were all that good at mingling."

Cassie frowned a little, getting out with us. "You know these guys?"

"Sort of." I replied. "The US government aren't the only people that want to keep a lid on aliens. A lot of planets think you're too primitive."

"Primitive?" Jimmy asked with complete apprehension in his voice. "We have nuclear missiles."

Of course, the weapons that did damage to both you and your enemy, while killing many innocent people in process, that was really a sign of how advanced you were. "Yes, primitive and aggressive. No offence."

"None taken."

But, we did need to get back on track. "Anyway, if the Alliance get reports of a spaceship crashing or some showoff sort of pilot doing loop the loops over the White House, they send in these guys to dispose of the evidence." I looked back at them. "And sometimes the eye witnesses. Only they're not very good."

"Where is the ionic fusion bar?"

Hang on, what? Ohhh. "Huh? Oh, the gizmo from the crashed spacecraft? Sorry, lost that while we were being attacked by a Viperox battle drone."

"Where is it?"

Cassie shook her head. "We haven't got it."

Dread then replaced his hand with a weapon. "Whoa, am I seeing this?"

"Didn't we mention?" Callie asked softly. "They're robots."

And now all of them were aiming their weapons. Great. "Give it to me."

There was so much more going on right now, people. "Don't you think the Alliance of Shades would be more interested in a thousand Viperox battle drones ready to hatch under our feet than in a piece of space flight hardware?"

"Tell me where the ionic fusion bar is, and we will deal with the Viperox."

Yeah, yeah, like that was really going to happen. "What! You couldn't even keep a lid on flying saucers. You know, in 1972, the Alliance pulls the plug on the lot of you. How are you four going to hold back Lord Azlok and his Viperox hordes? Unless-"

And the they all tumbled forward with an arrow in its back, before his associates followed suit. "Grandpa!"

"Oh, we could have found out everything then." Callie pouted, looking at the robots sparking in the desert. "Why does that keep happening today?"

"Doctor, Callie, Cassie, this is my grandpa, Night Eagle."

Cassie gave him a warm smile. "Hey, that was kind of handy with those bows and arrows."

I frowned for a moment, noting the exact places that they were hit. "Yes, straight through the central processing unit. One lucky shot I could believe, but four? You've met men like this before, haven't you, Night Eagle."

"We saw the disc fall from the skies, and thought more had come."

Now we were getting somewhere. "More of who?" Night Eagle lead them to a cave high in the cliff face, and on a wooden chair sat another of the aliens. "Oh my."

"Five years ago we saw his ship crash."

"So the ionic fusion thing came from his ship?" Cassie asked thoughtfully.

Jimmy stared at his grandfather as I held my daughter close. She needed to sleep. "How could you keep this secret?"

The man put a hand on his grandsons shoulder. "Others searched for him. Men in black suits. Those who knew swore to tell no one, not even our blood kin, to keep him safe."

"It's all right, I'm the Doctor, this is my daughter, Callie. We can help you." I told the man, kneeling down next to him.

"I want to go home."

"We can take you home." Callie told him. "Easy as pie."

"Not without Seruba Velak."

Oh, yes. The other one of your kind, trapped at Dreamland. "But she wasn't on your ship, was she. Night Eagle and his men would have saved her, too.

"No. My name is Rivesh Mantilax. Seruba Velak is my wife. Her ship was attacked by pirates. She was an ambassador of my people. The pirates were paid to ensure she never reached her destination." Yes, I knew of when things like that happened. "She transmitted a distress signal, but by then we were at war."

That made sense. "With the Viperox."

Rivesh nodded, looking so lost without his wife. They found their soul mates similarly to Time Lords, and never fell out of love. "Yes. They had sabotaged the alliance my wife had tried to negotiate against them. The war was long and savage, and I had a duty to my people. But the torture of watching my species slaughtered was nothing to the loss of my wife. When I could, I came for her."

Callie let out a long sigh, her eyes bright under heavy lidded eyes. "And let me guess. The military had Seruba Velak. The Roswell crash. So they were already looking for more spaceships, and they shot you down."

"Without provocation." He agreed.

"Forgive them." We told him softly. "They're primitive people, and scare easily."

"We've seen your wife. She's alive." Cassie spoke up from the wall of the cave.

Rivesh's eyes filled with a little bit of hope. "Tell me they have not harmed her."

"I think she's all right, and we're going to get you both home." My daughter smiled. "Or at least to whatever might be left after a war with the Viperox."

"No, I don't think you will, Callie."

We all turned with a start, to see the man who tried to wipe all of our memories. "Colonel Stark."

"On behalf of the United States government, thank you for leading us to this alien. You just helped me save the world." No, I rather think we just signed the death warrant instead, Colonel, because these aliens were the peaceful ones.

Callie gave an even bigger sigh. "For the first time in nearly 60 years, why does that feel like bad news?"

Our gang, now including Night Eagle and Rivesh, were loaded into an army truck, my daughter having to curl up on my lap because of the lack of space, which didn't matter because she fell asleep on the journey. I loved how easily she slept now, such a difference to her last form. All those nightmares... "I guess they'll try and wipe our memories again."

"You'd think Stark could be more forgiving," I wondered aloud as I stroked Callie's long dark hair absently. "As accidentally leading him to Rivesh Mantilax has somehow saved the world, apparently."

"Men like Stark don't save worlds." Night Eagle told me. "All they know is destruction."

Yes, that was the biggest problem. "That's what worries me."

We reached Dreamland again, and I had to carry my daughter as we were lead into an operations room, a map of the world on one wall, and a diorama of the local area on a table in the middle. Oh, and a giant insect stood beside it. "Lord Azlok."

"Ah, Doctor, and your young." You were lucky she was asleep, she'd hate you calling her young now.

"What an unexpected displeasure."

Cassie stared at the creature. "What in heck are you doing here?"

And then Stark came in behind us as I placed Cal on a chair, making sure she would be fine. "Ah, I see you've met my ally, Lord Azlok."

"Colonel, the Viperox savage and decimate every world they encounter." I told him firmly. "They don't have allies, they kill everything."

"But we have a common interest."

The monitor was switched on, and we saw the video feed from Lab 51. "Rivesh Mantilax."

Azlok moved towards Cassie, but Jimmy stood in between. !Did he tell you who he was, Doctor? Tell your young?"

Stark answered when I was silent for a moment. "He's a scientist. A specialist in genetic warfare. You know what that is?"

My people experimented on our own in an attempt to win the war against the Dalek's, I knew. Created monsters. "Yes. Not pleasant."

"Rivesh Mantilax had developed a weapon genetically targeted at the Viperox, to wipe us from the universe."

"Doesn't sound like such a bad thing."

So you'd commit genocide? Even for the young who don't know any better? "No, Jimmy, it is. A very bad thing. Who's to say one day even the Viperox won't discover a better way to exist."

"But I don't get it, Colonel" Cassie told him. "Why are you in cahoots with the Viperox?" I loved that word, cahoots.

The man lit up part of the world map - USSR. "The weapon can be modified to wipe out our enemies instead."

Why did I ever bother saving these people, they just tried to kill each other instead! "You mean Russia?"

"The Reds are sitting on a thousand nukes, and everyone of them has Uncle Sam's name on it."

Night Eagle shook his head. "The Russians will never fire them. They know as well as you that would be the end of the world."

This was not good, really not good. "Does President Eisenhower know about this plan?"

"Heck, the President doesn't even know aliens exist." Sounded about right.

"Well, anyway, it's irrelevant, as you don't have the weapon, do you, Colonel."

Enter Dread, sparking occasionally. Of course. "Hey, I thought he blew a gasket."

"Oh, that's the trouble with robots." I replied tightly. "You can never be sure you've shut them down. Twist a few wires together and they're anybody's, isn't that right, Lord Azlok?"

"I retrieved the ionic fusion bar."

Yeah, like that was really what it was for, yeah. "Except it's not an ionic fusion bar, is it. I've worked that much out. Why would the Alliance of Shades have been more interested in ignition systems than a Viperox horde?"

Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Because it's really a weapon?"

"Cleverly disguise to fool even me, even Callie who can see electrical cables inside a wall." At the mention of her name she started to stir. She'd been asleep a good 3 hours to be fair. Hell of a nap. "And a weapon that could kill billions throughout the universe. And now you expect Rivesh Mantilax to reprogram it to wipe out the whole of Russia?"

"It is the only way to make my kind safe, and he will do it."

My daughter's eyes flew open. "Only if you still have the weapon." And then she let out another banshee wail as we'd affectionately been calling it, as she loved X-Men, grabbed the bar and legged it, closely followed by me. "Good thing I can still hear while I'm asleep, dad!"

We made it up to a roof of a flat building, two helicopters rising up before we faced Stark. "There's nowhere to go."

"I'm not going to let you do this, Stark." I told him, defending Callie. "If you trigger this weapon you will kill millions of innocent people."

"You're talking like a Red." Why was an entire country nicknamed a colour? Was England Blue and America grey?

I shook my head. "Listen to me, Colonel. You cannot trust Lord Azlok. There's a Viperox Queen giving birth to an army out there. Once this weapon is reprogrammed, there is nothing to stop them attacking Earth."

He looked skeptical. "A bunch of supersized cockroaches against tanks and bombers?" Yeah, they were really scared of things they were immune to. "I'd like to see them try it."

"Ask Rivesh Mantilax and Seruba Velak." Callie shouted, her eyes flickering through different colours. "Their technology is a thousand years of Earth. They couldn't stop the Viperox. How will you? Who are you going to be, Colonel? The man who saves the world, or the one who destroys it."

And now Colonel Stark hesitated for a moment, before lowering the gun to speak into the walkie talkie. "This is Colonel Stark. Pull back. Soldiers, put Lord Azlok under arrest."

"He's gone, sir."

Ah, just what we needed. "Ah. Two problems with the Viperox, Colonel. You can't trust them, and they have very good hearing."

Azlok burst through the door onto the roof less than a moment later, and the gun was trained on him. "Consider yourself a prisoner of the United States Army."

"We have laid waste to entire galaxies. The United States and Earth itself will be as dust beneath our feet."

Yeah, we'd already told you that wasn't going to happen. "Not if we can help it. Take our advice and go home, while you still can."

"Because you have the genetic weapon? Without Rivesh Mantilax it is useless." Four wings popped out from under Azlok's carapace and he flew up into the air. "Now we shall tear your world to shreds!"

We ran back down to the lab, to find Cassie cradling Rivesh. "Azlok took out the guards when you escaped. He attacked him before we could do anything."

One look told me what I didn't want to hear. "And there's nothing we can do."

Seruba was hammering on the glass, and Callie walked closer, placing two green glowing hands to the surface. "Stand back."

Then the glass was in pieces, and the woman ran out. "My husband."

"Can we activate the weapon without him?" Stark asked, walking into the room a moment later.

I sent the man a dark look. "Oh, you're all heart, aren't you, Colonel. No, it's attuned to his DNA. That's why Lord Azlok needed him to reprogram it. Or, better still, needed him dead."

His wife looked at me and Callie. "He's not yet passed. I can save him! I need to get to the remains of my ship."

"The wreckage is stored in the vault." Stark replied. "It's impossible."

My daughter green him, lighting her hands up with a low red colour. She'd done that before, you could tell. "You'd better have a good reason why."

He hesitated for a moment, stepping away from her. "Operation Fallen Angel is set up to examine classify and detain all alien life that crashes on Earth. Something got loose in there."

Well, it was never going to be easy, was it? So Seruba, Callie and I headed to the vault, and walked in, the thick door rolling shut behind us. The entire place was stacked high with large crates. "This is going to take a while." Callie muttered, looking up from her phone. What was so important with Luke that you couldn't leave it for 5 minutes?! "I hope we find whatever it is we're looking for in time, Seruba Velak.

"She gave us a smile. "And then you will use the genetic weapon to destroy the Viperox, to scour them from the cosmos."

We both made a face, and she looked back at her phone, typing quickly. OK, that wasn't texting, what was she doing on that thing? "Well, it's not that simple." She stopped quickly. "Shush. Did you hear that?" You were the one with the ability to see sound, love.

But I gave Serurba my torch. "Here, keep looking. We have to save your husband. I'm going to see what's out there. Callie, be careful."

I lit up my sonic screwdriver and started to walk through, knowing that my daughter was able to protect herself and Seruba. I just didn't like it. Something swooped down on me at speed, before I ducked, and looked to see what the hell it was. And my hearts stopped. "Oh dear."

"Dad, we've found it." Callie called, running up to me with our new friend.

"Unfortunately, so have I."

They both stopped, staring at it floating off in the distance. "What is that?"

"They are Skorpius flies." Callie replied to Seruba, her voice lowering. "A billion of them. A giant swarming brain."

She looked hopeful for a moment. "If it's a brain, we can communicate."

Maybe not... "Yeah, but the Skorpius swarm brain only has one thing on its mind."

"Which is?"

"Well, at this time of day, supper. Run!" I shouted, grabbing my daughters hand and started to drag her along, before getting us into an open crate.

They both stared at me now. "This is your plan?"

Yeah... Probably not my best one, I had to say. "It's in development."

"In your plan to escape like a snail," My daughter told me softly, how do we see where we're going?"

I just grinned now. "Who needs to see? Didn't you count your steps on the way in? Eighty four steps ahead, turn left a hundred and two steps, turn right sixty two steps and we're out the door." We worked together to sonic out the bolts in the bottom of the crate. "Alwayss count your steps, Seruba Velak Calliope Jaclyn. You never know when you might need to escape in a box."

We reached the end of the vault, and I grinned at both of them once the crate was off. "Remember, girls, some men are born great, others have crates thrust upon them. Come on, we've got a planet to save."

So then Callie beat me to the driver's seat in the Jeep, and she sped us off down the path, her skills as a delinquent driver coming out in full before she skidded to a halt at the sight of the Army base exploding. "That doesn't look good. That doesn't look good at all."

"The base, we'll never get in there."

"We have to," I told her firmly. "Or Earth is finished."

"The soldiers cannot stop the Viperox. Nothing can."

Yeah. I was kinda hoping I'd get a plan on the way back, but nothing had happened. Callie, however. "Oh, no? Just watch me." And then the TARDIS was pulled up outside us in Jimmy's pickup. What was she up to?

"So what's the big deal with the blue box?" Cassie asked as we unloaded her, and Callie took her key from around her neck.

"Take a look."

They both looked inside the doors, and stared. "Holy smokes."

We materialised into the lab, startling the soldiers guarding Rivesh. "At ease." I told them softly. "Seruba Velak, do your stuff."

"O my husband." She placed a glowing ball on his head, the room filling with light, before it vanished and he awoke. . The room fills with light then it vanishes. Rivesh wakes.)

"Sorry, but we don't have much time." Callie told him softly, her eyes flashing different colours as she held the genetic device. What was she doing, really? "The Viperox will be coming through that door any minute. I need you to activate the genetic device."

He nodded, taking it from her hands to activate it quickly. "Happily. They destroyed our world. Now to wipe them from the face of creation."

My daughter shook her head. "No, we can't do that. I won't allow it, it's not what my dad taught me." Good girl.

"We've got to blow these monsters to hell."

She held up the now green glowing machine, and her eyes matched. She knew the frequency of the Viperox. "This weapon will destroy the Viperox not just on Earth but across the universe. No one has the right to destroy an entire species."

"Callie, Doctor, they destroyed my town."

She sent me a pleading look, getting me to help. "Please, trust me."

"You brought my wife and me back together. I trust you."

Jimmy looked anxiously back at the door. "They're almost here."

Callie smiled brightly, pressing what looked like regeneration energy, only this wasn't that, it was humming with songs, before she ran into the TARDIS, Azlok dropping down through the ceiling. And grabbed me by the neck. Well, I was dying soon anyway, the Ood told me so, the Ood calling out through the snow. "Trigger the device, and your father dies."

"I'm not going to destroy the Viperox horde." She told him, hesitating as she saw me in his grip. "Believe me, I can't."

"Because you are weak."

My daughter shook her head, long dark curls swishing. "Because you're an evolving species. One day, something incredible is going to happen. You will change, become peace-loving."

"This is madness."

"And this, Lord Azlok, is my ship. She might have a few trillion light years on the clock, the chameleon circuit doesn't work and the temporal sat-nav is always on the blink, but, do you know what?" Her face lit up. "My dad told me that she didn't need the meanest sound system sound system in the universe. Turns out, she really does." She plugged her phone into the weapon and then they both went into the console, and her voice came back through, the banshee wail already changed to the right frequency.

I was dropped, the ear splitting sound sending them all into a frenzy, my daughter pulling me away as they retreated. "Go back to Viperon, and don't even think about coming back."

"Your day will come, Doctor." He growled at me. "Even your daughters."

"Yeah, so they say." I agreed. "But there's no way my daughters ever getting to that point."

And then they were all gone, my daughter handing the weapon to Stark once it was unplugged. "There you go, Colonel. Put that somewhere safe. You won't have any more infestation problems."

He paused, looking at it. "Are you sure?"

Callie grinned, her eyes changing to the colour of the machine again. "I tweaked the weapon to attack the Viperox' nervous system on an ultrasonic level. Nothing deadly, just really annoying, like my banshee wail. The TARDIS was just a big amplifier. But this'll do the trick for you now. Keep the bugs out of the house by a light year, or your money back."

"On behalf of the United States government, Doctor, Callie, thank you."

Please, come on... "No, no, don't." He saluted before we could stop him. "Yeah, well, like I said, the Viperox are going to change their ways. I hope you do, too, Colonel Stark. The Russians are nice people, and so are some aliens." We waved to Rivesh and his wife as they headed home. "It doesn't look too bad with the dints knocked out, does it?"

The man turned to look at Cassie and Jimmy, stood close together. "I guess I'm going to have to trust you people to keep quiet."

"Oh, what's up, the Viperox smash up your mind-wipe chamber?" Oh, I liked her, I really liked her.

Stark walked away as they looked at us. "What about you, Doc, Cal? What now?"

"Well, we never did get anything to eat." I realised, playing with Callie's hair. "I think we'll grab a takeaway. Chinese, Ming Dynasty. Best dim sum this side of infinity."

"If you ever get the taste for chili again"

Oh, now that I would have to come back for. "It's a date. Meanwhile, Jimmy, Cassie might need some help cleaning up after the Viperox hit town. Why don't you give her a hand?"

"She's got it." He nodded, before we went back into the TARDIS, going off into time and space. I guess... It was time for my song to end.


	29. Bitter Blood

**Callie:**

I was not happy. At all. No matter what I did to distract him, dad wouldn't stop, he followed the Ood back to their home world. But I think the worse part was the fact that he was wearing a lei, and a stetson. "Come on, Callie."

"Dad, we don't have to do this, you know that we don't." I tried again, following him out into the snowy landscape in my leather jacket. "It's not always up to you, please."

"Calliope, my amazing daughter..." He sighed, hugging me. "There's one thing that you've let to learn about this family. If we can stop something happening, we stop it happening, no matter the risk for us. One day, you'll stop the running, you'll settle, but for now, this is how we do it."

Then he let go, walking away towards the Ood waiting for us. Dad... "Ah! Now, sorry. There you are. So, where were we? I was summoned, wasn't I? An Ood in the snow, calling to me and Callie. Well, we didn't exactly come straight here. Had a bit of fun, you know. Travelled about, did this and that. Got into trouble. You know me. It was brilliant. We saw the Phosphorous Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestadt, saved a planet from the Red Carnivorous Maw, named a galaxy Alison, after Callie. Got married. That was a mistake. Good Queen Bess. And let me tell you, her nickname is no longer."

Yeah, lets not go there, I wasn't very happy that you did that, dad. She was a cow. "Ahem. Anyway, what do you want?"

"You should not have delayed."

Dads eyes darkened a little as I pulled on my gloves, stopping my hands from freezing. "The last time I was here you said my song would be ending soon, and I'm in no hurry for that. Not with Calliope still so young in regards to our people" I was 56, dad, not young.

The Ood was unaffected. "You will come with me."

"Hold on. Better lock the TARDIS." And then he locked it like a car, making me laugh a little. "See? Like a car. I locked it like a car. Like. It's funny. No? Little bit? Blimey, try to make an Ood laugh, you end up making your daughter laugh instead. So how old are you now, Ood Sigma? Ah." He cut off, seeing the Ood city the same moment that I did, the icy spirals and buildings, reaching out towards the stars. "Magnificent. Oh, come on, that is splendid. You've achieved all this in how long?"

"One hundred years."

OK, that wasn't quite so magnificent, because it wasn't right. "Then we've got a problem. Because all of this is way too fast. Not just the city, I mean your ability to call us. Reaching all the way back to the twenty first century. Something's accelerating your species way beyond normal."

The Ood tilted his head to the side. "And the Mind of the Ood is troubled."

"Why, what's happened?"

"Every night, Doctor, Enfys, every night we have bad dreams."

We started being lead towards the Council, dad holding my hand tight as we went. "Why did they call me Enfys, dad? My name is Callie, Jace, or at a push, Seer."

He shrugged, his thumb rubbing absently over the back of my hand as we went well and truly into the middle of the city. "They told me about this last time I was here. They can look through time, the Ood, and they saw you, but all they ever saw of you, was the colours. Enfys is Welsh, Welsh for Rainbow, Love."

Oh, cool. "Could have been worse, I suppose. Could have been called Aurora, which is my least favourite Disney Princess. I mean, she literally does nothing with her life." Then we reached the circle sitting in an ice cave, the Council already in session.

"Returning, returning, returning, it is slowly returning through the dark and the fire and the blood." The Elder was saying. "Always returning, returning to this world. It is returning, and he is returning, and they are returning, but too late. Too late. Far too late. He has come."

"Sit with the Elder of the Ood and share the dreaming."

Yay, skin contact when I could shatter bones so very easily. "So. Right. Hallo."

"You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join."

We both linked hands in places we could fit in, and the moment the circle was finished we could see a laughing face that made my heart stop. No, no, no! He died, he died with mum, and Katie! "He comes to us every night. I think all the peoples of the universe dream of him now."

Dad and I spoke together, both adamant. "That man is dead."

"There is yet more." We were told, and we linked hands once more. "Join us. Events are taking shape. So many years ago, and yet changing the now. There is a man so scared."

That, that was Wilfred, Donna's grandfather. He was lovely, so kind to me when I first came back to this universe. "Wilfred. Is he all right? What about Donna, is she safe?"

We didn't get a straight answer. "You should not have delayed, for the lines of convergence are being drawn across the Earth. Even now, the king is in his Counting house."

Now we were given images of a black man and his daughter being photographed. "We don't know who they are."

"And there is another. The most lonely of all, lost and forgotten."

A woman in a cage, someone I'd never seen before. But she looked a lot like mum, same long blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes. "The Master's wife."

The Elder was watching dad as I did, wondering who the Master was, and why he looked like my dad, my adopted dad. "We see so much, but understand little. The woman in the cage, who is she?"

"She was." He kept hesitating. "It wasn't her fault, she was. The Master, he's a Time Lord, like me, like Calliope. I can show you." He showed us something. "The Master took the name of Harold Saxon. He married a human, a woman called Lucy. And he corrupted her. She stood at his side while he conquered the Earth. I reversed everything he'd done so it never even happened, but Lucy Saxon remembered. I held him in my arms. I burnt his body. The Master is dead."

I cleared my throat, taking a shaky control over the dreams, and showed them my oldest, oldest memories, from when I was Jace, still human, and still happy living on Earth with my surrogate family. "He was also Harry Monroe. H, he was my dad, for years, before the accident. I, I... I was the one to ID the body, when I woke up from my coma, I was the one to pour dirt on each of the coffins. So, he's already died once."

"And yet, you did not see."

"What's that?" Dad and I asked, before we were shown a woman picking up his Signet ring, something that was lost in the accident. "Part of him survived. We have to go!"

But as we tried to pull away, they held on. "But something more is happening, Doctor, Enfys. The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark. The Ood have gained this power to see through time, because time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil, and these events from years ago threaten to destroy this future, and the present, and the past."

That really didn't sound good. "What do you mean?"

"This is what we have seen, Doctor, Enfys. The darkness heralds only one thing. The end of time itself."

And then we were released, and started sprinting back to the TARDIS, running right through, landing outside a prison, but it was burnt down, and dad looked terrified. "Dad? Daddy, what's wrong?" I asked, as he pulled me back inside. "Daddy, what?"

He sat down on the seat and pulled me to sit next to him, holding me close. "I didn't... I didn't know quite how early he was sent back. I thought he was sent back to around 2005, not, not the 90's, my Callie. The Master... He always did have fun messing with me, and he'd have known you were my daughter from the start."

"So... He, he only came into my life to mess with you?" I asked softly, looking back at him. "He knew, he knew that my entire life then was a lie, and he made me suffer to make you suffer?"

"Callie, Cal, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He told me, looking so distraught. "If I'd have known, but... By the time I even knew the Master survived, you were in the parallel universe, and there wasn't anything to connect you both, I never saw a photo of your adopted dad."

Oh God... Everything I thought I knew about him, about Harry Monroe... I was never here for the Year That Never Was, but I would have known it was him then too. It had been so many years and I hadn't even been able to bring myself to lay flowers at Lucie and Katie's graves. "Lets... Lets just get through this." I muttered, getting to my feet, pulling my locket from around my neck to put it on the console. 50 years, and I'd never taken that off.

He moved us across London, and we got out of the TARDIS, standing on the cliff of what looked like a waste land, and dad sniffed deeply. And then we heard it. The four beat rhythm that dad, Harry, had always been beating on the table, the car steering wheel, everything. We started to run, running through piles of girders on the dockside until there was a figure on the skyline, the Master.

The man did an Incredible Hulk Impression, leaping into the air making us chase after again, and not even my shockwaves could stop him, but he laughed, a skeleton flashing through his grin. "Please, let us help. You're burning up your own life force." Dad shouted as I tried to stop him again, but as we kept running, a group of pensioners standing in front of us.

"Oh, my gosh, Doctor, Callie. You're sights for sore eyes."

"Out of our way!" I snapped, pushing past him.

But the Master was nowhere to be seen, he'd gotten away from us. "Did we do it? Is that them?"

"Tall and thin, big brown coat. Short, long hair and colourful clothes."

There was a very excitable old lady. "The Silver Cloak. It worked. Because Wilf phoned Netty, who phoned June, and her sister lives opposite Broadfell, and she saw the police box, and her neighbour saw this man and a girl who looked like his daughter heading east."

Excuse me? "Wilfred?" Dad asked, pulling him to one side with me. "Have you told them who we are? You promised us."

He shook his head quickly. "No, I just said you were a doctor and your daughter was colourful, that's all. And might I say, sir, Miss, it is an honour to see you again." And then we got saluted. Why, oh why...

"Oh, but you never said he was a looker." The excitable old lady was saying as they came over to us. "He's gorgeous. Take a photo." Wait, what? No way, I looked horrible, my hair was all over the place. They all started to fight for a position in the photo, and I ducked out to the back, looking carefully for Harry in the quarry area, my eyes able to see every sound, every colour, but there was nothing, no sound.

Silence.

 **DW**

The minibus full of old people had been horrifying. I had several grandmothery type ladies tell me that I was far too skinny, that I was gorgeous, and that I'd make a man very happy one day, like that was really my goal, though I did care about Luke with both my hearts, dad wasn't saying anything. It was scary when he got like this, because he would spend about a day or so just thinking in complete silence.

When my ability got me used to constant colour, constant noise and everything around me being so busy, to suddenly have the main source of colour taken away, it was so worrying. The warm blues and reds in his voice to be replaced with the empty whiteness of the silence.

We got off the bus, and I instinctively took dads hand, getting a warm smile from him as Wilf followed with us, and we headed into a cafe. "What's so special about this place? We passed fifteen cafes on the way."

"Yeah." He agreed. "Afternoon." I sat down at the table next to dad, ordering a coffee and a cheese and bacon panini, eating for the first time in a couple days. Dad forgot to eat at times, I had to remind him. "Oh, we had some good times, didn't we though? I mean, all those ATMOS things, and planets in the sky, and me with that paint gun, and you came along to save me, Callie." I was still blonde then, my hair was all over the place. "I keep seeing things, Doctor, Cal. This face at night."

Dad finally spoke. "Who are you?"

He blinked, like we should have remembered his name, which we did. "I'm Wilfred Mott."

"No. People have waited hundreds of years to find me, and Callie, well, she's near impossible to find, she remained hidden on the streets for 4 years, and then you manage to find us both in a few hours."

Wilf shrugged. "Well, I'm just lucky I suppose."

Oh, Wilfred... "No, we keep on meeting, Wilf. Over and over again like something's still connecting us. It was you I found on Earth, not even Sarah Jane, who knew me."

"What's so important about me?"

"Exactly." Dad agreed wearily. "Why you?" And now he paused for a moment. "I'm going to die."

I couldn't deal with this now, I just... He knew he was dying, and he was walking towards it willingly. Getting up, I felt his eyes on me as I walked out, leaning against the wall around the corner. I lost everyone, I lost Lucie, Katie, I lost Harry, when I thought that he cared about me, I lost Rose, Mickey, Big Jackie and Little Jackie. Uncle Jack, he was out there, but I rarely got to see him. I lost Reinette, my sister. It was like I was cursed, that I would never have something for only a few years before it was taken away from me.

Pulling out my phone, I dialled the number in my second speed dial. _Ring ring, ring ring, rin-_

"Callie, hey, what's up?" Luke's cheerful voice came through, and I needed that, just for someone to be happy, unlike the misery and fear I had around me.

"Nothing much, Sweetie, just wanted to hear your voice." I smiled through the phone, fighting back tears that I refused to let fall. "I really want to see you again soon, it's the biggest problem with us living so far apart."

He laughed a little. "Well, we don't exactly live so far apart, its that your home is a spaceship. Tell you what, I'll ask mum if you can come over for New Year next week, how does that sound?"

Oh, that sounded amazing... "Yeah, yeah, definitely. That sounds amazing, Luke. I can't want for that, now."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Callie, are you sure you're alright? Are you crying?"

"No, no, it's fine, Luke." I told him, wiping away the tears that had forced themselves out. "Dads just cutting onions for dinner, and he's doing a really bad job." Oh, he always knew how I was feeling through my voice, it was why... Oh, I should tell him, in case everything went so badly now... "Luke, I love you."

The smile in his voice sounded even brighter now, such a warm green that made me feel like I was in a forest, surrounded by nothing that could hurt me. "I love you too, Callie. Um, I'll see you next week, for New Year, yeah?"

"Yeah." I agreed, pausing as I saw a familiar red head, loading shopping into her car. "I'll see you next week, Luke. Bye." Hanging up, I ran over to Donna as she was about to drop a bag with eggs and a bottle of wine inside, but I caught it. "Hey, need a hand?"

She looked at me in confusion for a moment, and I knew she wouldn't recognise me, she barely knew either of my faces, but she then gave me a warm smile. "Thanks, you're a lifesaver. My fiancés just getting the rest of the stuff from the shop."

I spent a few minutes helping her out, getting her stuff in the boot, before they thanked me warmly, and drove off. Donna was so good for dad, everything that she did for him once Rose and I were stuck on the parallel world, when Martha left after the last problem with the Master. He needed someone like her back in his life.

Dad came back out of the cafe then, and I walked over and hugged him, and he held me tight, and I saw that he'd been crying. "It's OK, dad. I won't leave you, I promise. I'll always be here for you."

Night fell not long after, and we headed back to the waste land, dad asking me to hide in the shadows, away from where he was. It took a lot to not run out and sent shockwaves at him as he shot at dad with energy, hitting him squarely in the chest and he fell to his knees. The Master, I refused to call him dad any longer, caught him, before letting them fall to the ground. "I had estates. Do you remember my father's land back home? Pastures of red grass, stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up at the sky. Look at us now."

"All that eloquence." Dad groaned, getting back to his feet "But how many people have you killed? My daughter's family."

"I am so hungry."

He looked at him with pain in his eyes. "Your resurrection went wrong. That energy. Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself."

The Master wasn't listening to him, pacing around, his voice dark and malicious, a horrifying shock of bitter blood red. "That human Christmas out there. They eat so much. All that roasting meat, cakes and red wine. Hot, fat, blood, food. Pots, plates of meat, and flesh, and grease, and juice, and baking, burnt, sticky hot skin. Hot. It's so hot." Dad was begging him to stop. "Sliced. Sliced. Sliced. "It's mine. It's mine. It's mine to eat and eat and eat."

I couldn't... I couldn't just stand there and watch this, and I ran back out, pushing him away from dad. "Stop it. What if we ask you for help? There's more at work tonight than you two and me."

"Oh yeah?" He paused for a moment, like he was recognising me. "Jace. Always wondered if you'd make it back to this world. I see you know the truth."

"Yes, I do, Master." I replied softly as dad pulled me back. "We've been told something is returning."

He spread his arms expansively, gesturing to himself. "And here I am."

Dad shook his head, moving me behind him. "No, something more."

"But it hurts."

"We were told the end of time." I told him firmly, ready to shatter him should we need it. "Are you even listening?"

"It hurts. Doctor, Jacey, the noise. The noise in my head, Doctor, Jace. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Stronger than ever before. Can't you hear it?"

This is why you went mad... "We're sorry."

"Listen, listen, listen, listen. Every minute, every second, every beat of my hearts, there it is, calling to me. Please listen."

Why didn't he understand... "We can't hear it. I am the Seer, I see every sound, I control it, but there's nothing." He reached out for me, and I took his hand instinctively, before the sound filled the air around us, and even dad looked shocked. "But... That's... No, no way... I just projected that sound! But there's no noise. There never has been. It's just your insanity, like dad told me! What is it? What's inside your head?"

"It's real. It's real. It's real!" He flew off again, and we started running after him, and I managed to catch up as spotlights shined down on us, one on me and my adopted father, and the other on dad. "All these years, you thought I was mad. King of the wasteland. But something is calling me, Doctor, Jacey Lyn. What is it? What is it? What is it?"

A pair of SAS guys came down on ropes, managing to inject the Master with something to knock him out, trying to do the same with me, but I fought back, letting out a banshee wail, pushing them back, but they shot a dart at me.

The last thing I heard before the night closed on me, was dad screaming for me to be let go.

When I woke up, I was tied to a chair, my mouth tightly bound, and my hands encased in what felt like wood, meaning any sonic would just absorbed. It just didn't work with wood, no matter what. "If you would, Mister Danes."

My gag was taken off, as was the Master's, tied up even more next to me, but when I went to scream and shatter eardrums, I could barely make a squeak. "W, what..."

"I'm afraid, young lady, that we've had to give your vocal chords a relaxant. It gives you the ability to speak, but your powerful voice? It'll come back, this isn't permanent."

"Yeah, right." I muttered, trying to fight free, but I was held down tight. "W, where's my dad?"

"Right next to you." The man replied, and now I recognised him from the dream back with the Ood. We never did learn his name. "Harry Monroe, listed as your father before your death in 2005, Jaclyn." I let out a growl at my human name, but they didn't stop. "You have my daughter to thank for this. It's all her idea. She heard rumours of Harold Saxon, his disciples, his return, his daughter. It's the sort of thing she finds rather thrilling."

The girl beside him smiled, and I wanted to be able to make her ears bleed. "And I was right. He's back. The very man and daughter combo we need, and they're here. Oh, this is going to be wonderful."

What the hell were they talking about? "Sorry, but this isn't my dad! He was left out in the waste land. Harry Monroe was never my father, he was just my adoptive family. My father is an amazing man, and this guy? He killed my human family, leaving me alone, and on the streets."

"This is the man who stopped you being found out by the government, but there's time for this later." The Master was then transferred into a straight jacket, before we were lead into the next room, my hands still bound in wood, and there was a massive machine taking up the space at the far end. "Demonstrate."

Electricity surged across the Gate, and the power was all in different directions, before it fizzled out. Well, if they were going to show me the power in different colours, I was going to use my eyes to stop it. I could swap the cables easily, the sound that they made meant the energy could be transferred to kinetic. I was an energy specialist. "Oh, that's not from Earth."

"And neither are you two." The man smiled. "A perfect combination, don't you think?"

"Er, excuse me, sir. If I could check the basement?" A man that was practically sparkling with energy asked. "We're getting fluctuation on the power cords." He agreed, and the other woman who was all shiny and glittery left with him.

"The Gate was found inside a spaceship buried at the foot of Mount Snowdon. It was moved to an institute known as Torchwood, but when Torchwood fell, let's just say I acquired it."

I cleared my throat, which actually only made a small squeak again, but this was going through my system fast. "Torchwood 1, or Torchwood 3?"

"Torchwood 1, Jaclyn. Torchwood 3 still exists in Cardiff."

That was fine then, if Jack went off world, I wanted him back in the TARDIS with us, but the Master was looking creepily at the dude. "I like you."

He blinked, a little surprised. "Thank you."

And then he ruined it. "You'd taste great."

"Mister Danes?" A servant told his colleagues to bring food, and he was given an entire chicken, ripping it to pieces and devoured it. It was times like this that I remembered why I went vegetarian. "Jaclyn, would you care for anything?"

"I would care for you to stop calling me that." I told him firmly. "Really, my human name was Jaclyn, or Jace, and after that, after I was 55 and looking like I was about 20, I embraced myself, and went for my real name. Calliope."

The man shook his head. "Your true self has the same name, the name your father and mother gave you." My mother abandoned me and my father told me my real name. "Anyway, the device came equipped with it's own power supply. A Nuclear Bolt. One technician remains in charge of the feedback twenty four hours a day, and the power feeds through to the Gate, where it encourages some sort of cellular regeneration. Miss Collins was our test subject. She carried some burns as a result of an accident when she was a child, down her left side. If you could?" A woman stepped forward and showed her left arm. "The Gate mended her. Thank you."

Master of Nought next to me frowned a little. "But what do you want it for?"

"We calculate that if this device can be fully repaired by your good self, it can restore the body forever." He replied. "Hence it's given title. The Immortality Gate. Because that's what I want. Not for me, but for my daughter. I want her never to die. My gift to her. She will be immortal." No one deserves that curse, look at Uncle Jack.

"Abigail. It means bringer of joy."

He sniffed deeply next to me, and I knew why. I could see the golden streams from the TARDIS materialisation reaching us, even here. "Better get to work." The Master started typing furiously on a keyboard, but he made sure to do it near silently, not giving me enough sound to change anything, and my hands were getting no where. I could have tried to heat up the wood, but that wouldn't have helped because my hands would just burn. Come on dad...

The man watched carefully over him as he worked, while I stayed quiet, hoping that they'd forget about me until I made their eardrums burst. Until he went to stop him. "Now, please don't imagine I'm a slave-driver. We can resume work on Boxing Day, Mister Saxon. I'll let you spend Christmas with your daughter, I believe you have some catching up to do."

"My name is the Master." He replied, and I saw that he was finished, before he pressed enter, causing a wormhole to develop inside the Gate.

"Oh, excellent. Excellent! Mister Danes?"

He had him restrained again, and he looked horrified. Well, sort of. "What? But I repaired it."

"I'm not an idiot. Don't let him anywhere near that thing, shoot Jaclyn if he tries." Oh, brilliant. Now I was the bait near enough. "Your reputation precedes you, sir. I have no doubt you've laid traps. Perhaps explosives. A means of escape, or murder. You did kill your first human wife and her other daughter and lead the second to suicide. But everything you've done to the Gate will be checked and double-checked before anyone stands inside. But it's time for the broadcast. The President's grand initiative. You might want to see this, sir. Proof that the human race can mend it's own problems."

The news was switched on the TV, and I cleared my throat, feeling it almost back to normal. Oh, just you wait, gunmen... "And now, anticipation is rising as we go live to Washington. Here, on Christmas Day, the President has promised an instant and radical solution to the worldwide depression. Barack Obama will lead us all into a new age of prosperity. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States."

"I'd like to speak briefly about the state of our economy-"

And then Dad ran into the room, looking terrified. "Turn the Gate off right now!"

"At arms!"

The guns that were trained on me went onto him, and I took the moment to let out a short, sharp banshee wail, causing them to drop, their earpieces fizzing in their ears. "No, no, no, no, no. Whatever you do, just don't let him near that device."

That made him laugh, throwing the straight jacket off and leapt over everyone's heads on pillars of energy. Right into the gate. "Oh, like that was ever going to happen. Homeless, was I? Destitute and dying? Well, look at me now."

"Deactivate it." I shouted as dad worked on getting me out of my restraints. "All of you, turn the whole thing off!"

But the effects had already reached everyone, getting inside everyone's heads as Wilf ran into the room. "Doctor! Doctor, there's, there's this face."

"What is it? What can you see?" I asked, not able to feel anything myself. I guess being a Hybrid helped. Half human, half Time Lord.

"Well, it's him." He pointed to the Master in the Gate. "I can see him."

"There's something wrong. It seems to be affecting the President." The TV told us as I ran with dad to the computer, trying to shut it down, shatter the circuits, anything.

"I can't turn it off." I looked at dad in panic. "Dad, it's deadlocked, even against me!"

"Wilfred! Get inside. Get him out." Dad shouted, running into half the glass cubicle, and he swapped places with the man on the other. "Just need to filter the levels." Wilf was suddenly able to see again as I kept trying to destroy the machines, but they were able to power themselves now. "Radiation shielding. Now press the button. Let me out."

He ran back out next to me, and I went to his side, looking at the man in the Gate. "Fifty seconds and counting."

OK, what were you talking about? "To what?"

"Oh, you're going to love this."

Everything was going to hell, I could hear the world, all the worlds colours changing to one, just one. Bitter Blood. "What is it, hypnotism? Mind control. You're grafting your thoughts inside them, is that it?"

He was still laughing. "Oh, that's way too easy. No, no, no. They're not going to think like me, they're going to become me. And, zero!" A blast of energy spread out from the machine, and I saw the dark colour spread everywhere, as far as my vision could reach, and everyone started to change, apart from dad, Wilf and I.

"You can't have."

"What is it?" Wilf asked from the Glass. "Doctor, Callie? She's starting to remember." No, no, Donna! "What is it? What have you done, you monster?"

The Master just gave him a bemused smile. "Oh, I'm sorry, are you talking to me?"

"Or to me?" The Naismith one she'd, then his daughter did the same. Then all of them around the world.

"I'm President. President of the United States. Look at me!" He was applauded by an audience of identical him. "Ooo, financial solution. Deleted. Ha ha!"

The original in front of us grinned. "The human race was always your favourite, Doctor, you even bred with one to make that there daughter we both raised. But now, there is no human race. There is only the Master race. Bwahahahahahaha!"

Oh god... My Luke...


	30. Ending Song

LAST CHAPTER!  
 _ **The next book is called the Girl Of Colours, and will start with Callie moving in with Sarah Jane and Luke, joining the Bannerman Road Gang. It will then go into Series 6 after the end of SJA with the Man Who Never Was. Oh, and we'll find out the truth about Callie's adoption. Enjoy, my Lovelies! Izzi xxx**_

 **The Doctor:**

"Now then, I've got a planet to run. Is everybody ready?" The Master literally asked the billions of himself around the world as I was gagged and bound, my daughter trapped back in the wooden restraints and her throat had been injected with a relaxant. She couldn't do more than whimper.

"Six billion, seven hundred and twenty seven million, nine hundred and forty nine thousand three hundred and thirty eight versions of us awaiting orders."

And then the Obama version spoke to us through the television. "This is Washington. As President of the United States, I can transfer all the United Nations protocols to you immediately, putting you in charge of all the Earth's defences."

A UNIT man now. "UNIT HQ, Geneva reporting. All under your command, sir."

"And this is the Central Military Commission here in Beijing, sir, with over two point five million soldiers, sir." It panned out to show the rest of them. "Present arms!"

My old best friend grinned at me as I just watched him stiffly. "Enough soldiers and weapons to turn this planet into a warship. Nothing to say, Doctor? Jacey Lyn? What's that? Pardon? Sorry?"

"You let them go, you swine." Wilf shouted at him, and Callie closed her eyes, tears trickling down her cheeks. This was the man who gave her her love of music and the colours that hurt her at times, and now? He was destroying her, taking away Luke.

"Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss. Well, he is a grandfather, someone Jace never had." Her name wasn't Jace, she chose her name as we chose ours. Calliope Jace Allison Smith. Callie...

He raised his chin defiantly. "Yeah? Well, I'd be proud if I was."

"Hush, now. Listen to your Master." And then his phone started to ring. "But that's a mobile."

Oh, no, no, Donna... She wouldn't have turned, she was like Callie, more of a Hybrid. "Yeah, it's mine. Let me turn it off.

He shook his head emphatically. "No, no, no, no, no. I don't think you understand. Everybody on this planet is me. And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?"

"It's nobody." He told her quickly, as Callie opened her eyes again, the colour not picking one, going from red to blue to yellow, then back to red as she tried to help herself. "I tell you, it's nothing. It's probably one of them ring-back calls."

The Master started to search through his pockets, pulling out a revolver. Why did he have a gun, he sold newspapers! "Ooo, and look at this. Good man!" And then patronisingly threw it away, to get at the phone. "Donna. Who's Donna?"

"She's no one. Just leave it."

When did he ever do what he was told to do? But he hit answer, and I heard my best friends voice, the woman who helped me after I lost Jace to the parallel universe, before I got her back as Callie. "Gramps, don't hang up. You've got to help me. I ran out, but everyone was changing."

He turned to me and gave me an inquisitive look. "Who is she? Why didn't she change?"

"Gramps, I can't hear you."

"Well, it was this thing the Doctor did." Wilf told him. "He did it to her. The Metacrisis, just after Callie changed into how she is now." Regeneration. That's what happened, she regenerated, Wilfred.

Now I got a dirty look from him. "Oh, he loves playing with Earth girls. Ugh! Just look at what happens, you get a Hybrid!" The Master turned to look at one of his fellow selves. "Find her. Trace the call." Donna was still begging for help, and Callie looked from me to Wilf, asking the question with her eyes that she couldn't with her voice. It would wear off, but I'd have to help her get immune to it. "Say goodbye to the freak, Granddad."

Once the phone was on his ear, he started trying to help. "Donna, get out of there! Just get out of there. I'm telling you, run!"

"She's on Wessex Lane, Chiswick. Open the phone lines. Everyone on Wessex Lane. Red alert." Donna...

"What do I do?"

"Run, sweetheart, that's all." He told her. "Run for your life!"

There was a gasp on the phone. "There's more of them."

Please... Come on, work, fail safe, work... "Donna? What's happening? Are you still there?"

"They're everywhere."

"Look, I'm telling you to run, Donna. Just run, sweetheart." Wilfred shouted to his granddaughter. "Just run."

She was so scared, even more scared than I'd ever heard her. "It's not just them. I can see those things again. Those creatures. Why can I see a giant wasp?" Well, you did try to set fire to it with a magnifying glass.

Wilf was thinking that this was the end, that her mind would burn. "Donna, don't think about that. Donna, my love, don't!"

Donna was sobbing now. "And it hurts. My head. It keeps getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter!" There was a pause, when the failsafe kicked in. "What did I-"

The line went dead, and Wilf kept calling for his granddaughter, tears still streaming down Callie's face, faster now. "Donna? What was that? Donna? Donna, are you there? Donna.! Donna! Donna!"

My old friend looked back at me, smiling like there was nothing wrong, and I winked, getting him to come over and remove my gag. "That's better. Hello. But really, did you think I'd leave my best friend without a defence mechanism?"

"Doctor?" Her grandfather asked hesitantly. "What happened?"

"She's all right." I told him. "She's fine, I promise. She'll just sleep."

"Tell me, where's your TARDIS?" The Master asked me conspiratorially, while I could smell burning wood. Callie, no, your poor hands...

"You could be so wonderful."

Yeah, he wasn't listening. "Where is it?"

"You're a genius. You're stone cold brilliant, you are. I swear, you really are. But you could be so much more. You could be beautiful. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour. Because you don't need to own the universe, just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough. You looked after my daughter, my Callie, you gave her a love of music and her colours, you cared for her, even though you would never admit it."

And now he actually considered this. "Would it stop, then? The noise in my head?"

Oh, that noise... It's what started all of this, from Gallifrey to the Grave, it had traumatised him. "We can help."

"I don't know what I'd be without that noise." He admitted sadly, and I saw the friend I had loved for so many years, the one who got me to run away, to explore instead of watch.

"I wonder what I'd be, without you, or her." I replied, looking at my daughter who was looking back at me, her blue eyes wide and her cheeks tearstained. She was trying to speak, but her vocal chords wouldn't move.

Wilf frowned from the other end of the room. "What does he mean? What noise?"

He looked back at him, starting to pace. "It began on Gallifrey, as children. Not that you'd call it childhood. More a life of duty. Eight years old. I was taken for initiation, to stare into the Untempered Schism."

"What does that mean?"

"It's a gap in the fabric of reality." I explained. "You can see into the Time Vortex itself. And it hurts. Normally that would be how a Time Lord gained their abilities, for Callie... It could have ripped her apart or made her all powerful."

The Master nodded, taking back over. "They took me there in the dark. I looked into time, old man, and I heard it calling to me. Drums. The never ending drums. Listen to it. Listen."

Oh please, please... "Then let's find it. You and me and Calliope."

"Except. Oh. Oh, wait a minute." He laughed, standing up straight again. "Oh, yes. Oh, that's good."

No, no, this wasn't good, not good at all. "What? What is?"

"The noise exists within my head, and now within six billion heads. Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine. Oh. Oh, yes." He was still laughing, and his skeleton was showing again, just for a moment.

" The Gate wasn't enough." I realised. "You're still dying."

My old friend paused, breathing like it hurt him just it exist. "This body was born out of death. All it can do is die. But what did you say to me, back in the wasteland?" The Master turned to Callie, who shied away from him. "You said the end of time, Jacey."

Stay away from her! "Callie said something is returning. We were shown a prophecy. That's why we need your help, and why you need to let her have her voice back."

"What if I'm part of it? Don't you see? The drumbeat is calling from so far away. From the end of time itself. And now it's been amplified six billion times. Triangulate all those signals. I could find its source. Oh, Doctor. That's what your prophecy was. Me!" And then for some reason this meant I had to be slapped across the face. Master Logic. "Where's the TARDIS?"

Yeah... Last time you borrowed her that didn't go down so well with her navigation. "No. Just stop. Just think."

He looked at his guard. "Kill him." He went over to Wilf, and the gun was trained on his head. "I need that technology, Doctor, and Jace's sound amplification. Tell me where it is, or the old man is dead."

"Don't tell him." Wilfred shouted to me, but I knew what was going on, and so did Callie who was laughing silently.

"I'll kill him right now!"

"Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone dead stupid." Callie mouthed, and the Master read her lips, getting the guard to aim at our friend. "You've got six billion pairs of eyes, but you still can't see the obvious, can you?"

"Like what? Jaclyn, what?"

"That guard is one inch too tall." I told him, and the Vinvocci knocked him out with the rifle but as the wood around Callie's hands set alight, before dropping off, her hands shrivelled and burnt. Oh, my little girl..

The helmet went up on Rossiter, and he looked at the Master in horror. "Oh my God, I hit him. I've never hit anyone in my life."

His girlfriend ran in, coming to let Wilfred out as Callie tried to with me, but her hands were too sore. "Well, come on. We need to get out of here fast."

"God bless the cactuses!"

"That's cacti." I corrected, but got shot down. Oops, maybe I should read up on the Vinvocci.

"Come on! We've got to get out."

Rossiter had tried to help Callie, but he wasn't having much luck either. "There's too many buckles and straps."

"Just wheel him."

Wait, what?! "No, no, no. Get me out. No, no, no, don't. Don't! No, no, no." But they weren't listening, and Callie couldn't speak up for me as she was struggling to make yes or no noises. is wheeled across in front of the camera feed to the screen.)

We paused at a junction, one was going towards their basement, and the other to the TARDIS. "Which way?"

"This way." No, that's the wrong way!

"No, no, no, no, no. The other way. We've got our TARDIS."

Addams wasn't listening to me. "I know what I'm doing."

Come on, this was not the way we needed to be going! "No, no, no, just just listen to me!" And then I saw what was coming up ahead of us. "Not the stairs. Not the stairs!" I was so not going to be sitting down for a while after this. "Worst rescue ever! Just, just stop and listen to me!"

The Master ran in with armed guards as we reached the basement, which wouldn't have happened if we'd gone to the bloody TARDIS! "Gotcha."

"You think so?" Addams asked, then pressed her wristwatch, and we were on her ship before we could protest.

"Now get me out of this thing!" I shouted the moment we were there, and Callie dropped, gagging. Sudden colour change from the teleport, make her very dizzy and give her vertigo.

She rolled her eyes, starting to undo them. "Don't say thanks, will you."

Callie looked up, managing to hoarsely croak something. "He's not going to let us go."

"Just hurry up and get me out! Come on." I shouted as Wilf stared out the window in awe.

"All right!"

And then I was free, and I zapped the teleport with the sonic screwdriver, turning off the teleport before facing her. "Where's your flight deck?"

"But we're safe. We're a hundred thousand miles above the Earth."

Callie rolled her eyes, her burnt hands limply by her side. "And he's got every single missile on the planet ready to fire." She croaked, holding her throat as she strained it.

That threw her. "Good point." And then we started to run, before I had to go back and gently lead Wilfred away from the window where he was still staring out.

"But we're in space!"

"Yep." I agreed, feeling like I was leading around an elderly person in the middle of a siege. "We've got to close it down!" I shouted when we reached the flick deck.

Rossiter shook his head. "No chance, mate. We're going home."

His girlfriend was already getting us ready to leave. "We're just a salvage team. Local politics has got nothing to do with us. Not unless there's a carnival. Sooner we get back to Vinvocci space the better." Yeah, and you'd be followed by missiles for as long as you were active.

"We're not leaving." I replied stiffly, as both Callie and I sonically sabotaged the controls, sending us into darkness, Cal then gasping in pain, her hands red and raw. "Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush. It's OK, Love, it's ok." I whispered, hugging her carefully.

Addams was checking the window, the only way we'd see if anything was coming any longer. "No sign of any missiles. No sign of anything. You've wrecked the place!"

"The engines are burnt out." Rossiter added. "All we've got is auxiliary lights. Everything else is kaput. We can't move. We're stuck in orbit."

We were getting shouted at a lot for saving them. "Thanks to you two, you idiots!"

They left, and I carefully took Callie's hands by the wrist, and sat her down as tears kept trickling from the pain. "I know you two, though." Wilf was saying as I searched through a box for a first aid kit. "I bet you've got a plan, haven't you? Eh? Come on. You've always got a trick up your sleeve. Nice little bit of the old Doctor and Callie flim-flam," insert Tommy Cooper impression here. "Sort of thing? Eh? Oh, blimey."

"Callie, this is going to hurt." I told her honestly as I found the kit and there was an antiseptic spray. "I know you can't scream, not properly right now, but you're going to want to. Are you ready?" My daughter nodded, and I started to spray, and her face contorted, mouth open in a near silent scream, just a whimper that set a few of the machines sparking. "It's OK, Callie, it's going to be OK."

I finished that off and carefully bound them up, already starting to heal with the spray, so she could move them a little better, but they'd have to be cleaned regularly. We started working on some wiring together, Cal managing a little bit of sign language to be able to talk to me as her voice slowly came back, but then we stopped, seeing a bright object streaking toward the planet.

Wilfred came to find us a little later, Callie stood at the window, watching silently at the UK, where her boyfriend looked like her old father, the man who ripped apart her family. I had to get Luke back for her, or it would feel like part of her was always missing, like she was torn. "Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended?"

"Just trying to fix the heating." I admitted, messing with some more wires.

"Oh. I've always dreamt of a view like that." He laughed, looking down on the Earth so far below us. "Hee, hee. I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look. Brand new day. My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. Do you think he changed them, in their graves?"

Oh, Wilfred... "I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "No, not your fault."

Why didn't I believe you? If I'd made sure, if I'd searched the pyre, or if I'd stopped him being resurrected in the first place, I could have stopped everything before it started. "Isn't it?"

"Oh, 1948, I was over there." He pointed to the middle east. "End of the Mandate in Palestine. Private Mott. Skinny little idiot, I was. Stood on this rooftop, in the middle of a skirmish. It was like a blizzard, all them bullets in the air. The world gone mad. Yeah, you don't want to listen to an old man's tales, do you?"

"I'm older than you." I admitted as Callie came back over, and I wrapped my arms around her, kissing her long silky curls. "And she's almost the same age. I'm nine hundred and six, and she's 56."

He looked between us in admiration and awe. "What, really, though?" I nodded as Callie croaked an agreement. "Nine hundred years. We must look like insects to you."

No, no, you managed to make your race war free, something even the Time Lord's couldn't manage. "I think you look like giants."

Wilfred looked hesitant for a moment, before taking out the gun he'd had with the Master, back on Earth. "Listen, I, I want you to have this. I've kept it all this time, and I thought-"

"No."

"No, but if you take it, you could-"

Callie shook her head now, looking at it in horror. "No." She whispered, her hand shrivelled in her lap. "You had that gun in the mansion. You could have shot d, the Master, there and then."

The old man sighed. "Too scared, I suppose."

Exactly what you should be. Be more scared to take a life, and maybe your life won't be taken. "I'd be proud."

"Of what?"

"If you were my dad." I replied. "If you were Callie's grandfather."

He laughed a little now. "Oh, come on, don't start. But you said, you were told he will knock four times and then you die." Callie flinched, trying to hide the fear in her eyes, but the yellow showed. "Well, that's him, isn't it? The Master. That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you."

"Yeah."

"Then kill him first."

"And that's how the Master started." I sighed, shaking my head. "It's not like I'm an innocent, or even Callie is. We've taken lives. I got worse. I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own, or she'd send a sonic pulse, being able to shatter the nervous system, either a mercy killing, or a slow, agonising death. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long. I can't. I just can't."

He paused, thinking for a moment. "If the Master dies, what happens to all the people?"

Please, I can't kill him, he's my best friend... "I don't know."

Wilfred didn't believe me and kept pushing. "Doctor CJ, what happens?"

My daughter looked at me, then at our friend, and her voice was a little louder, less strained. "The template snaps."

"What, they go back to being human?" They wouldn't even remember everything fully. "They're alive, and human. Then don't you dare, sir, little Miss. Don't you dare put him before them. Now you take this." He forced the gun into my hand, the metal cold and distasteful, like a jagged, bitter little pill. "That's an order, Doctor. Take the gun. You take the gun and save your life, live for your little girl. And please don't die. You're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die."

"Never." I replied, giving him back the gun.

And then the tannoy started. "A star fell from the sky." The Master told us, and Callie frowned, not understanding. "Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor, Jacey Lyn. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond." No... "And the diamond is a Whitepoint Star. And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift."

Callie paused, frowning at me. "Dad, what does that mean?"

I shushed her, trying to listen to what he was saying as my hearts thudded in my chest. "Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor, Little Jace. This should be spectacular. Over and out."

The transmission ended, and Wilf and Callie looked at me in confusion. "What's he on about? What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?"

"A Whitepoint star is only found on one planet." I told them, looking right at my daughter. She was too young, far too young... "Gallifrey. Which means it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning."

"Well, I mean, that's good, isn't it? I mean, that's your people. You and Callie." They were elitists, and Callie would be deemed as wrong. What really was the difference between them and a Dalek?

I took the gun and started to run, my daughter sprinting after me as I went, heading for the flight deck. A signal could be heard as we got in there, and Cal blinked in time with it, the dull rhythm probably driving her insane. "What's that?" Addams asked.

"Coming from Earth. It's on every single wavelength."

Rushing around, both Wilf and Callie stared at me, and I paused every few moments to get my daughter to do something for me, only little things that wouldn't hurt her hands. "But you said your people were dead. Past tense."

Why did I have to explain this now, I was busy. "Inside the Time War. And the whole War was Timelocked. Like, sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble but just think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or get out of the Timelock. Don't you see? Nothing can get in or get out, except something that was already there."

"The signal." Callie realised, her voice almost back. "Since he was a kid."

I nodded, working furiously. "If they can follow the signal, they can escape before they die."

"Well, then, big reunion. We'll have a party."

"There will be no party." I told him darkly, looking at my little girl, who looked more scared of me right now. They wouldn't get near you, I promise, Calliope, I won't let them hurt you...

"But I've heard you talk about your people like they're wonderful."

Oh, my people. "That's how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old. But then they went to war. An endless war, and it changed them right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them."

Addams blinked behind me, not understanding. "Time Lords, what lords? Anyone want to explain?"

Ah, brilliant, just who I needed. "Right, yes, you. This is a salvage ship, yes? You go trawling the asteroid fields for junk?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Brilliant, Molto Bene! "So, you've got asteroid lasers!"

"Yeah, but they're all frazzled."

Callie raised an eyebrow, before flicking up a lever easily. She saw the colours, she'd understand it. "Consider them unfrazzled."

I looked at the girl one, too busy to remember names again. "You there, what's your name? I'm going to need you on navigation." Now the man one. "And you, get in the laser-pod. Wilfred." He looked confused. "Laser number two. The old soldier's got one more battle."

"This ship can't move. It's dead!" The girl, Addams, shouted at me.

My daughter rolled her eyes. "Fix the heating? Turns back on the veins of the ship, meaning you can easily do this" Then she turned the power back on. My little girl, I was so proud of you... But you couldn't stay with me any longer, I was just tainting you. You were staying because otherwise I'd be alone, but you needed to think about yourself, let yourself be selfish for once.

"But now they can see us."

Yeah, I did know that, thanks. "Oh, yes!"

She was adamant about being in control. "This is my ship, and you're not moving it. Step away from the wheel."

That was definitely going to happen. Right after I did a thing. "There's an old Earth saying, Captain. A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need."

"What's that, then?" She asked dubiously.

"Allons-y!" I shouted, powering us toward the earth at an alarming angle. "Come on! Come on!"

"You are blinking, flipping mad." Yup!

I glanced over at Wilf and Rossiter. "You two. What did I say? Lasers."

"What for?"

Callie rolled her eyes, trying to boost the shield as best she could with 3rd degree burns. "Because of the missiles. We've got to fight off an entire planet for some reason."

They both went to take their places as we kept hurtling through the air, over the ocean. "We've got incoming."

"Look at this one!" The male Cactus cried in alarm. "Oh, my God!"

My god you were as bad as a Tivoleon. "You two, open fire!" I shouted, skimming the water to dodge them. "Open fire! Come on, Wilf!"

"Whoo!" Wilfred laughed as he shot at them. "Oh, I wish Donna could see me now." One day... One day she'd remember. But only for a moment.

"And there's more." Addams called from the radar. "Sixteen of them. Oh, and another sixteen."

My daughter just stared at her. "Then get on the rear gun lasers! You two, open fire! Now!"

"No, you don't!" I cried, doing a flip to avoid some. "Come on! Fire!"

Then the front window got knocked in, and Callie yelped as she was showered in glass, cutting her arms and face. "Dad, slow down! You're going to crash!"

"Can't slow down or we won't make it." I shouted back. "Lock the navigation. England. The Naismith mansion."

"Fifty kliks and closing." Addams shouted after a Moment. "We've locked on to the house. We are going to stop, though. Doctor? We are going to stop?"

Wilf called up from his pod. "Doctor? Doctor, you said you were going to die." But I would never take anyone else with me. "But is that all of us? I won't stop you, sir. But is this it?"

I pulled the spaceship's nose up at the last moment, then ran over to my daughter, opening a hatch in the floor. "Calliope." I smiled softly, looking at her terrified face. "Be brave, be amazing. I love you my daughter." Then, with the revolver ready, I jumps down through the glass dome, hearing her scream for me, shattering the glass before I hit it. Landing hard on the marble floor, I couldn't hold the revolver and I couldnt even stand for the pain I was in.

There were five Time Lords where the the Gate had been, on two raised steps, haloed in a white light. "My Lord Doctor. My Lord Master. We are gathered for the end."

"Listen to me. You can't!"

Rassilon, the cause of Gallifreys Fall, would never listen. "It is a fitting paradox that our salvation comes at the hands of our most infamous child."

You really believed that? You were stupider than I initially thought. "Oh, he's not saving you. Don't you realise what he's doing?"

"Hey, no, hey!" He interrupted. "That's mine. Hush. Look around you. I've transplanted myself into every single human being. But who wants a mongrel little species like them, because now I can transplant myself into every single Time Lord. Oh, yes, Mister President, sir, standing there all noble and resplendent and decrepit. Think how much better you're going to look as me." Rassilon merely raised his gauntlet, and reversed the process, turning everyone back to normal. "No, no, don't. No, no, stop it! No, no, no, don't!"

"On your knees, mankind." The Lord President ordered, and peopled obeyed. This wasn't a man to ignore.

My old friend was still trying to save himself from the hole he'd dug. "No, that's fine, that's good, because you said salvation. I still saved you. Don't forget that."

"The approach begins."

"Approach of what?"

Oh, why... Why couldn't you just listen, why couldn't you have been the friend that I needed and remembered, and just trust me? "Something is returning. Don't you ever listen? That was the prophecy. Not someone, something. They're not just bringing back the species. It's Gallifrey. Right here, right now."

People started to run from the room as the planet started to materialise in the sky above us, everything shaking as my daughter and Wilfred pushed their way inside. "But, I did this. I get the credit. I'm on your side."

"Dad!" Callie cried. "Dad, daddy!"

Wilfred let out a man from the glass booth as she ran to my side, and held me up, even though we told him not to. Was I invisible, why was no one listening to me? "But this is fantastic, isn't it? The Time Lords restored."

"You weren't there in the final days of the War." I told the Master as Calliope was getting dark looks from Rassilon. She was a hybrid, mostly Time Lord, but also that little bit of human. "You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending. Callie could sing her hearts out, but her voice wouldn't stop it."

"My kind of world."

"Just listen, dad!" Cal cried, her voice back, but still full of pain. "Because even the Time Lords can't survive that, I sure as hell couldn't, and you care about me, I know you do, your voice gives you away, it's why you never spoke about me before, because the reds and the lilacs would give you up."

Rassilon interrupted us. "We will initiate the Final Sanction. The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue until it rips the Time Vortex apart."

The Master stared at him in horror. "That's suicide."

"We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone." If he had a working brain, I'd eat my hat. If I had a hat, anyway. "Free of these bodies, free of time, and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be."

I looked at him, the knowledge of what I'd had to stop fresh in my mind. "You see now? That's what they were planning in the final days of the War. I had to stop them."

He wouldn't give up. "Then, take me with you, Lord President. Let me ascend into glory."

"You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more."

And then Callie took the gun from me, aiming it at the President, except it was engulfed in colour, every colour, every spectrum. Bad Wolf. "Choose your enemy well, Abomination. We are many. The Master is but one. You are enough like us to ascend, the colours of the universe could become your building blocks." Calliope, please...

"But he's the President." He old father goaded as I just leaned weakly against the floor. "Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours, my Jace." But then she whirled, the colours streaming like the aurora borealis around her, and the gun trained on him instead. "He's to blame, not me. Oh, the link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back. You never would, you coward. A real daughter of mine could do it. Go on then. Do it." Tears were streaming down her face as she turned back to the President, and I knew she couldn't do it. She'd taken lives, she'd told me so, but every time she felt herself start to shatter, like she died with them. "Exactly. It's not just me, it's him. He's the link. Kill him!"

"The final act of your life is murder. But which one of us?"

My eyes fixed on the Woman behind Rassilon, and her hands lowered, looking over my shoulder. Mother... My Mother... I knew what she wanted me to do, to protect my daughter, protect those I needed to. So I grabbed the gun from Calliope and she dropped to the ground, sobbing in harsh grey sobs as I aimed it at the Master. "Get out of the way." Then he moved, and I shot at the machine holding the Link in place, before the Time Lords started being sucked away. "The link is broken. Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell. Backing the hell away from my daughter who is anything but an Abomination!"

"You'll die with me, Doctor."

That was something I'd realised a long time ago. "I know."

The gauntlet was aimed at me as my mother covered her face once more. Until the Master moved beside me. "Get out of the way, and protect that little girl with everything, Doctor." He told me, before attacking the Lord President with his life energy. "You did this to me! All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four! Made it impossible for me to care for those I loved like Jace!"

He was forced to his knees, pushing into the light as Gallifrey and my people fell, Callie still sobbing as I wrapped my arms around her, until we were engulfed in the light again.

And then it faded, I was still here. "I'm alive. I've. There was. I'm still alive." I told myself, looking to see my daughter unconscious, the bandages on her hands bloodstained and she was bleeding from the glass cuts, but otherwise OK.

 _Knock, knock, knock, knock_. **Knock, knock, knock, knock**. _Knock, knock, knock, knock._ **Knock, knock, knock, knock**.

"They gone, then?" Wilf asked from inside the nuclear control box. "Yeah, good-o. If you could let me out?"

"Yeah." I nodded, seeing how the song played out. How it played out to the end.

"Only, this thing seems to be making a bit of a noise."

Well, it would. "The Master left the Nuclear Bolt running. It's gone into overload."

He didn't understand. "And that's bad, is it?"

"No, because all the excess radiation gets vented inside there." I explained, holding back my emotions with a wall of Azbantium, 4 times harder than diamond. "Vinvocci glass contains it. All five hundred thousand rads, about to flood that thing."

Wilfred blinked a little. "Oh. Well, you'd better let me out, then."

If only. "Except it's gone critical. Touch one control and it floods. Even this would set it off." I indicated to the sonic, then looked at Callie. "She'd end up letting it leak everywhere, she can't aim very well."

"I'm sorry."

They always were. "Sure."

"Look, just leave me."

Because I could, I could do that, really. I could just let him die, Donna's grandfather, the man she'd always had believe in her, even before I did. "Okay, right then, I will. Because you had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh yes. Because that's who you are, Wilfred. You were always this. Waiting for me all this time. Just as I got Callie back, my daughter."

"No really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my time."

"Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important. But me? I could do so much more. So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair!" I screamed into the void as I shoved all the paperwork off a table, and Callie started to stir. She was so young, she shouldn't have to deal with this. She was just a child in our eyes, the eyes of our people. "Oh. Oh. I've lived too long."

"No. No, no, please, please don't. No, don't! Please don't! Please!" Wilfred begged me as I walked towards the other door, my hand on the thick glass.

"Wilfred, it's my honour. Better be quick. Three, two, one." And then I quickly went into the booth, and let the man out, and I started to crumple as the radiation hit me, crying out in agony. Please, please, please, let it be quick... I curled into a ball, waiting for death, as a hand touched the other side of the glass, and I looked up to see my Calliope, anxious and terrified. "Callie."

" What?" Wilfred asked as I got to my feet shakily, the pain starting to ebb away. "Hello."

Right, what exactly happened? "Hi."

My daughter stared at me, her blue eyes wide in panic. "D, d, dad?"

"The system's dead. I absorbed it all. Whole thing's kaput." I touched the door lightly and it swung open. "Oh. Now it opens, yeah."

"Well, there we are, then." Wilf laughed as I walked out. "Safe and sound. Mind you, you're in hell of a state. You've got some battle scars there, both of you." I rubbed my face wearily, and they both stared at me, and Cal started to cry again. Please... Be brave my amazing, colourful girl... "But they've. Your face. How did you do that?"

"It's started." I told him, holding my daughter close, and Wilf hugged me too as I fought back the tears. I had to let her go, I had to stop her becoming like me.

We dropped off Wilfred with his family, nursing Donna back to health after everything, and moved to Bannerman Road, where Callie had to run right away to stop Luke from being hit by a car. "Callie!" He cried, hugging her tight and she clung to him, clung like her life depended on it. That was what made me sure this was right.

I walked back silently to the door of the TARDIS as they crossed the road safely now, and she saw me. "Dad? Dad, w, what are you-" And then she realised. "No! Dad!" She started to run back but I was already through the doors, and I dematerialised before she could get inside. I watched her on the monitor, tears running down her already snail trailed and cut cheeks. "DAD! Please, please, daddy!"

"I'm so, so sorry my Callie." I whispered to the silence in the TARDIS. "I love you with everything, and everything is what I'm giving you. Good luck my Girl of Colours."

My song was ending, but hers was just getting started.


End file.
